


Night Terrors

by FishyFloat



Category: Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series
Genre: Angst, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-17
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2021-02-10 03:22:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 39,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21455431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FishyFloat/pseuds/FishyFloat
Summary: Even the strongest of minds can be scarred by war.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Past and Present

**Author's Note:**

> I know there are tons of angsty Wildwing/Nosedive stories out there and I had promised myself that I wouldn't write one. However, I had a migraine last night. Typically, that happens when I have something creative inside my head that needs to get out. This story, fully formed, is what was clawing its way out of my skull around midnight. 
> 
> Takes place a day or two after Take Me To Your Leader.
> 
> Please, enjoy :)

Duke leaned back in the chair of Drake One, putting his feet up on the controls and folding his arms behind his head. The clock on the massive computer showed 2:06 a.m. Sleep was elusive this night; a huge storm front was moving through California and the change in air pressure kept him alert. The prickling sensation of charged ions in the air wasn't diminished by the fact that he was underground. Instead of staying cooped up in his room and futilely trying to sleep, he'd chosen to come out to Drake One and scan the city for any signs of trouble. If nothing else, he could go out and have a little fun disrupting Anaheim's criminal element.

Grunting and pounding footsteps interrupted the gray drakes search. Wildwing burst through the hallway leading to the bunks, breathing heavily, as if he'd just engaged in some sort of battle. He looked like he'd just leaped out of bed, dressed in only his blue plaid sleep pants and his hair going every which way.

"Wing! What's wrong?" Duke was on instant alert. That crazy look in his team captains eyes was completely abnormal. "Is Nosedive okay?"

The leader didn't acknowledge the question or even Dukes presence. He held his body tense, ready for combat at any second. Unseeing eyes scanned the room. Suddenly, he crouched down and started slinking against an invisible wall, his gaze never remaining in one spot for long. He quickly reached the stairs leading to the platform holding the massive supercomputer and climbed them, constantly looking over his shoulder.

"Wing?" Duke was worried. Something wasn't right here. What had caused the normally collected drake to act like this? He stepped in front of the entranced duck and waved his hand in front of his face, trying to get some sort of reaction.

Suddenly, Wildwing's gaze met Duke's, but the compassionate leader wasn't there. All he saw was a frightened, angry duck, desperate to escape something.

"Disgusting drones," Wildwing growled. "I'll rip all of you apart with my bare hands!" He swung at Duke, attacking.

Instinct saved Duke as he dodged the oncoming blow. He continued to evade attacks, not wanting to retaliate and harm his captain.

"Wildwing, it's me, Duke!" He sidestepped another blow. "What's gotten inta ya?"

"Tin trash," Wildwing snarled as he crouched, arms held wide and ready to pounce. "You'll never keep Puckworld. We'll fight you to the last duck!"

Duke's eye opened wide. Wildwing was sleepwalking and clearly having some terrible nightmare. The realization left him momentarily distracted. Stars exploded in his vision as the insensible leader's fist connected with his jaw, throwing him to the ground.

"Oww," Duke moaned as he rolled over. He could just see Wildwing entering the elevator, the doors closing before Duke could get up to stop him.

"Well, that was strange." Duke shook his head and rubbed his jaw. "Ow. That's gonna leave a bruise."

He quickly checked Drake One to see where the elevator stopped. Rink level. Damn. He couldn't let Wildwing leave the Pond like this. He was likely to hurt himself or someone else and not even know it. It was a matter of seconds before he was in the elevator as well, searching out the goalie before any more damage could be done.

0000

Wildwing stood in the locker room and looked around, finally registering his surroundings. His heart was pounding, adrenaline coursing through his veins. What was he doing in here? How did he get here? The cold sweat dripping down his shoulder blades helped pull his mind back to the physical world.

The white feathered drake groaned as he rubbed his face and ran his hands through his hair, straightening it a little. It'd happened again; this time, he had actually managed to get out of the room he and Nosedive shared. He was still too jumpy to even think about going back down to their secret base. Maybe some time on the ice would calm his nerves and soothe the fear that threatened to take over his psyche once more.

He left the locker room and went to the dressing room. His black skates hung on their hooks above his stall; all of his gear was neatly laid out and ready for the eight a.m. practice later today. Quickly tying the skates on and neglecting socks, he hurried out to the ice. A grass green plastic bucket of pucks rested next to the stick rack in the player box. Not caring whose equipment he grabbed, he snagged the bucket and the closest hockey stick. The pucks were thrown across the ice at the red line, scattering like disturbed water striders.

Images of the Saurian Invasion kept floating before his eyes. The acrid scent of Hunter Drone oil was strong in his nose, despite their absence from the arena.

Wildwing skated around the edges of the rink, holding the stick level in front of himself with both hands. When memories of the destruction turned to images of other ducks trapped in the camps with him, he returned to the pucks. It took a conscious effort, but he mentally projected the image of hunter drones, the machinery he'd been forced to work, and Dragaunus and his saurian henchmen onto the sable scapegoats. Each black disk, impregnated with a foul memory, was hit as hard as possible into the net. He aimed at the crossbar in the back; a loud clink echoing every time vulcanized rubber met metal. The pucks that missed the net entirely banged into the boards with the satisfying volume of a gunshot. Soon, he stopped aiming at the crease and punished the arena boards with a black barrage from center ice. The pucks ran out before his anger did and the shirtless goalie hurled his borrowed stick away from himself, not caring where it landed.

Rage and frustration continued to burn deep inside, driving him near lunacy. This was a battle Wildwing had been fighting for the past four months, ever since they had been stranded on Earth. The whole mess with the Chameleon impersonating Canard only brought the horrible memories to the forefront of his mind. Luckily for him, the trademark Flashblade obstinance kept him from giving in to the stressful madness. The memories took over when sleep came; if he couldn't fall into a restful sleep, he could drive himself to exhaustion for a short time of dreamless slumber.

Leaving the pucks where they lay, the still fearful duck glided to the ice next to one of the goals. Turning around, he skated to the other end of the rink at maximum speed, sliding to a stop before hitting the boards, and reversing direction. He was determined to continue the back and forth drill until his legs collapsed.

0000

Duke had exited the secret elevator in darkness and silence. No trace of Wildwing could be found in the locker room. Not wasting any time, he hurried into the dressing room and towards the arena exit. A pale shadow moved in his peripheral vision, heading towards the rink.

The thief followed, making sure to remain silent and unseen. If Wildwing was still in whatever dream state that made him so frightened and violent, he didn't want to be seen. If worse came to worse, he'd hit his leader with a bola-puck and leave him tied up until he came to his senses.

Wildwing seemed to be fully in control of himself as he scattered a bucket full of pucks across the ice and began skating laps of the arena. Still, Duke wasn't taking chances. A bandit didn't survive as long as he had by taking unnecessary risks. Keeping to the shadows, he slipped into the stands and crouched behind the seats five rows up. As long as Wildwing stayed on the ice or within the rink, he didn't feel the need to interfere with whatever was going on inside his head.

The throbbing in his jaw was a small distraction from the heated puck bashing. He'd have to get some ice on there soon, before it became too swollen. Still, he couldn't leave Wildwing alone until he knew what was going on or if the leader had completely snapped.

Duke was disturbed at the fervent speed with which his team captain pushed himself across the ice. It was obvious from the way he had been hitting the pucks that the drake had returned to his senses. Wildwing was doing this to himself on purpose and he couldn't understand why.

After several minutes of frantic skating, Wildwing tripped over his own blades and crashed onto the cold surface, sliding towards the neutral zone. He lay face down, unmoving, limbs splayed out. Duke rocketed to his feet, ready to rush to his leaders aid; the distraught goal tender pulling himself to his knees stopped the gray drakes approach.

"Canard, you damned fool," Wildwing muttered, staring down at the ice. He leaned forward, supporting his weight with his arms, crying softly.

Seeing his team captain break down like that made Duke uncomfortable. If Wildwing knew someone was watching him, he'd either be embarrassed or furious. The pounding pain in his jaw made Duke think he'd tend towards the latter emotion.

"DAMN YOU, CANARD!" Wildwing shouted into the frozen surface. He rocked back, sitting on his heels and glared at the roof. "Why'd you leave me in charge?" his voice rose in anger, demanding an answer that could never be given. "You should have left us in the camps! We'd have been freed when you destroyed the master tower. You stupid son of a chicken!"

Quiet sobbing echoed throughout the silent rink as the anger finally left Wildwing. Wiping his eyes, he rose and took in the mess on the ice.

Duke froze when Wildwing stood. He was plainly visible if the white drake looked towards the stands. Luckily, the nearly exhausted duck kept his eyes on the ice as he glided to the abandoned stick laying near the face-off circle and picked it up. Once Duke was assured that Wildwing was focused on the task of gathering stray equipment, he slowly worked his way down the stairs and back into the tunnel to return to headquarters. He wanted to be below rink level when the leader returned from his early-morning excursion.

"I'm sorry, buddy." Wildwing's rueful voice floated through the air, whispering to the ghost of his friend. "I know why you did it; I just wish you hadn't."

0000

Funny that there wouldn't be any ice in the freezer of a hockey arena that belonged to ice-loving ducks. Nosedive had probably used the last of it and neglected to refill the ice cube trays, again. Either him or Tanya; she could be more forgetful than Nosedive when focused on a project.

Sighing, Duke grabbed a package of frozen peas and whacked it on the counter a few times to break up any lumps. After pressing the frosty package to his aching beak, he pulled the empty trays and re-filled them with water so there would be ice in the morning. This was definitely not how he had expected to pass the night.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Wildwing's exhausted voice alerted Duke to the fact that he wasn't alone. "Didn't know anyone else would be up."

Duke turned from the refrigerator to face his leader. Quite frankly, Wildwing looked like shit. Sweat made his feathers cling to his skin in dark patches and his hair resembled a mangled feather duster; but, it was his red rimmed eyes that carried all the sorrow and hopelessness of two worlds in them. His strong shoulders slumped under the unseen burden they carried. The distraught leader turned to leave, his bare feet making no sound.

"Sorry to have bothered you," Wildwing muttered.

"Wait," Duke tried. "I was gonna make some coffee. Want any?" He still held the white bag of vegetables to his lower beak while opening the cabinet that contained the coffee filters with his other hand.

Wildwing paused, refusing to meet the gaze of the only other duck awake at this ungodly hour, before nodding and sitting down at the table. He folded his arms on the wooden surface and rested his forehead on them, remaining soundless.

Oppressive silence blanketed the already stuffy room as Duke scooped the aromatic, black grounds into the waiting coffee maker and poured the water in. The gray duck placed two mugs next to the percolator before leaning on the metallic counter and facing his team captain. Stillness reigned, daring anyone to break it with so much as a breath.

As if the storms electrical energy didn't have him on edge enough, he'd just had to witness what amounted to an emotional breakdown for his leader. He didn't know what to do, but he knew Wildwing shouldn't be left alone at the moment. It was easy to forget just how young the goalie was; he normally acted with maturity far beyond his twenty years. Tonight, the facade of a confident, responsible leader had been stripped away to reveal the frightened young drake underneath.

Bubbling and gurgling from the percolating coffee drew his attention back to the task at hand. Just about enough for two cups had filled the carafe, although brown-black droplets still fell from the reservoir above. Steam from uncaptured coffee hissed angrily as Duke removed the pot and filled the cups before the maker was finished.

Duke sat a sea green coffee mug next to the goalie's folded arms before taking a seat directly across from Wildwing. He wrapped one hand around his oversized, black mug, enjoying the warmth from it.

"Wanna talk about it?" Duke shifted the peas around, finding a colder spot to soothe his bruised beak.

Bleary, blue eyes studied the former jewel bandit as the pale feathered duck lifted his heavy head. He slowly swung it back and forth, indicating a refusal to discuss what brought him here. Slowly, white fingers grasped green ceramic and pulled the steaming cup of caffeine along the table to just under the vivid orange beak. Wildwing stared down at the coffee, making no move to drink it.

Duke sipped his brew, being careful not to burn his tongue from the hot liquid. If all Wildwing wanted was silence, he'd be more than happy to comply.

"What happened to your beak?" Wildwing's voice was barely above a whisper, raspy and rough.

Duke's one eye widened a little. He'd been right; Wildwing _had_ been sleepwalking when he'd thrown that punch.

"Eh..." He paused, trying to think of a good excuse. "Tripped over my boots and hit it on a chair on my way to the bathroom." He inwardly winced at the stupid lie. Maybe it was dumb enough to be believable.

"Oh." The questionable pretext was apparently accepted without thought. Finally, Wildwing took a drink, although the motion looked more automatic than purposeful.

"So," Duke tried again. "What's got you up this late?"

"Nightmare."

"Musta been a bad one, to get you worked up like that."

Wildwing's gaze shot from the swirling depths of his coffee to his companions, attempting to discern how much Duke knew. He was instantly defensive, closing off all signs of his inner workings.

"I mean," Duke smoothly continued, "You're really sweaty. Had to be a nasty dream to do that."

Wildwing seemed to accept that answer, but remained guarded. His gaze drifted back to the java filled mug. Ceramic threatened to shatter under the tight grip imposed upon it.

"Wing!" Nosedive ran into the kitchen, looking slightly frantic. "There you are!" He suddenly noticed the other duck in the room. "Oh, hey Duke." The younger Flashblade instantly lightened his worried tone to one of casual greeting when he realized he and his brother weren't alone.

Wildwing looked over his shoulder and gave a weak smile as his brother moved closer. Nosedive was also still in his sleeping attire, which consisted of a red pair of loose gym shorts. His blond locks were matted, but nowhere near as messed up as his older siblings.

"Dude! What are you drinking?" Nosedive leaned over and pulled the coffee away. "Man, I always gotta look out for you. What'd you do without the Dive-man to take care of you, huh?" He quickly went to the sink and poured the freshly brewed beverage down the drain.

"Hah," a half-hearted laugh was forced from Wildwing's throat.

"I just made that, ya know." Duke frowned as he watched Nosedive pull a pan from under the counter and set it on the stove. The youth poured some milk in it, adding a little raw honey, vanilla, and salt before turning on the burner.

Nosedive ignored him as he rinsed out Wildwing's mug.

"Nosedive," Duke began, "What's goin on here? Why are you up?" He was going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what.

"Um... Heh." Nosedive smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Woke up and didn't see Wing, so I went looking for him."

"And why would you have to do that?"

Wildwing glared at Nosedive and Duke, not liking where this conversation was going. Besides, he wasn't happy with the way Nosedive had just swooped in and stolen his coffee. That caffeine was his only ticket to staying up the rest of the night and avoiding the nightmares. He almost regretted having pushed himself so hard on the rink; there just wasn't enough energy left to fight his brother or Duke's prying.

"Uh, no reason. Just wanted to know where he was." Nosedive started stirring the slowly warming concoction, keeping the milk from burning on the bottom of the pan.

"You two aren't tellin' me something." Duke leaned back and crossed his arms, bag of frozen vegetables still in one hand.

Both brothers remained silent as Nosedive re-filled the green mug with the warm milk and poured the rest of it into a teal mug for himself. He sat next to his brother, facing Duke but not meeting his gaze. The mug he pushed over was ignored for a moment before being lifted to Wildwing's beak and drank from.

"Hm." This time, the smile that tugged at the corner of Wildwing's beak was genuine and had a little energy behind it. "Just like Mom's."

"Of course!" Nosedive elbowed his brother. "Unlike some ducklings, I paid attention when she tried to teach us how to cook."

Nosedive finally noticed Duke's injury as the gray drake reapplied the makeshift icepack to his jaw.

"Dude! What happened to you?"

At Wildwing's sad gaze, Duke instantly knew his first excuse hadn't been bought. This time, he opted for the truth. Maybe that would get these two talking about what was going on.

"Wing punched me after calling me tin trash and yelling about defending Puckworld." He rubbed his jaw in appreciation for the strength that was wielded against him. "You've got a hell of a left hook, Wing."

"Sorry." The captains eyes squeezed shut and he hung his head in shame. The dreams had been bad, but he'd never harmed anyone before.

"Eh, I knew somethin was wrong. Now do ya mind telling me what it was?"

"I... I..." It didn't seem possible, but the goalie's shoulders sank even lower as his hands fell to his lap and stared at the floor. "I can't remember."

"Really?" Duke was surprised. He'd sure as puck remember a night terror as strong as what he'd witnessed Wildwing having.

"No," Wildwing corrected, relaxing a little bit at Nosedive's hand resting on his back. "I remember. I just-" He shook his head and took a drink, studying the now white liquid in the mug. He took a deep breath and finally looked Duke in the eye. "It's hard to talk about."

"Ch'yeah," Nosedive agreed, taking a drink himself and looking towards the clock on the wall- 3:38.

"Wing, ya gotta get it out or you're going to go nuts," Duke urged. "What I saw tonight, you were dangerous."

"Were you ever in the camps?" Wildwings voice was resigned, the exhaustion palpable.

"Nah. I took food I stole from Dragaunus' supply lines to a couple of camps. Not pretty places." He shuddered at the memory of the maimed, sick, and starving denizens of Puckworld that had been forced into slavery. Every time he had delivered food, he'd tried to take as many with him as he safely could. No matter how many he freed, there were still more left behind to suffer.

Wildwing opened his beak and closed it several times, trying to force the words out, but unable to. Nosedive leaned shoulder to shoulder against his brother, lending support in the physical touch.

"I'm ready to talk about it if you are," he softly encouraged his older brother.

The pale drake took a deep, shuddering breath and let it out, steeling himself for what he dreaded most.

"Nosedive and I were in the camps for fifteen months before Canard found us."

Duke hissed quietly at the length of time they'd been slaves. They must have been captured early on in the invasion. No wonder Wildwing was suffering from these nightmares.

Wildwing frowned and started to say something, stopped, and looked confused, unsure of how to continue.

"I have the nightmares too," Nosedive picked up for him. "Sometimes, they're so real. It's like I'm back in that hell hole and ducks are dieing all around me. There's no escape."

"Wow." Duke had no words to give them. How did you comfort someone who had their life ripped away from them only to be rescued and then watch their liberator vanish into oblivion before being stranded in a foreign universe? Saying it was okay would only be a lie.

"They put a compliance collar on me," Wildwing whispered, his voice barely audible.

"The Saurians?" Duke wasn't sure what Wildwing was talking about.

"No. Flork and Zork, when they kidnapped me. They did it to force me to fix their guidance system."

"Suckers," Nosedive snorted, smiling a little.

"Yeah." Wildwing drained the last of his milk and yawned. "They didn't know I'm an expert at getting those things off."

"Really?" Duke was impressed. Their by-the-book leader apparently had a little hidden larceny in him.

"After all the times those guards tried forcing Nosedive into them? Yeah, I got really good at removing them with just about anything."

Wildwing pushed himself up from the table as he yawned again.

"Going back to bed, bro?" Nosedive asked, finishing off his milk as well.

"Yeah. Might as well try to get some sleep before practice. Hey, change the code on the door again when you come in, would ya?" With that, he vanished from the kitchen.

"That how you two've been keeping this secret?" Duke didn't like the idea of either brother locking the other one in.

"Yeah. Depends on which one of us is sleep walking." The blond drake seemed a little embarrassed at their secret.

"Dive, you two have to find someone to talk to. I'm willing to listen, but I can't offer much help other than a sounding board. You can't keep wandering around at night, ignoring the problem."

"Thanks, Duke," Nosedive smiled. "But we've got each other." He stood to leave as well. "Hope the beak doesn't hurt too much. Trust me, I know how hard he punches!"

"It'll be okay. You get some shut eye. Night, Dive." He returned the teens wave as he watched the retreating back.

Now to figure out how to help those two. He sure as puck wasn't going to tell anyone else about it without direct permission. It was like pulling teeth to get any answers from them tonight and he didn't need to violate their trust. Maybe he could find something online.

The one eyed duck poured himself another cup of coffee after moving the Flashblade's mugs into the sink and returned to Drake One. This time, he searched for something vastly different than criminal activity.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End AN: The symptoms I describe here for Nosedive and Wildwing closely resemble PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). I figure you can't go through everything they have without it leaving some sort of emotional mark. Lucky for them, they went through it together and can help each other through the difficulties.
> 
> The warm milk that Nosedive makes is an actual recipe that I use for when I can't sleep. It's 1 cup milk (preferably raw milk, but that's insanely hard to find), 1 tbsp raw honey (must be raw!), 1 tsp vanilla, and a pinch of salt (preferably celtic sea salt). Mix it all together and warm it up slowly on the stove, stirring constantly to keep it from burning on the bottom or forming a skin on the top. Those ingredients mixed together act like melatonin and really help you fall asleep quickly, even if your mind won't shut up.


	2. Naked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note, this story was written in 2013 when I was still very christian and unquestioningly followed my church's beliefs. I have since learned better and am working to correct those past views. The locker room scene will eventually be edited.

Grin stretched his well-muscled arms above his head, waking his body as well as his mind. The massive drake rolled off his custom made futon and knelt in front of the low table next to his bed. His fingers found the matches in the pitch black room and he struck one, bringing a golden glow to the darkness. Lighting two white candles, he began his morning routine.

The serene duck had long ago given up on finding a bed that would support his size and weight. All of the standard mattress and frames that Earth provided either gave out or were too small. By using a futon over several tatami mats pushed together, he was finally able to enjoy a sleeping surface that didn't leave his feet hanging off the end.

His room was sparsely appointed, holding little more than his makeshift bed, a low table with his meditation crystals and a few candles, and a very minimal kitchenette with a short legged chabudai table surrounded by four zabuton cushions. He had instantly fallen in love with the Asian decor style of his adopted planet; it reminded him of Master Tae Kwak Do's home. By having furniture that required floor living, he eliminated the uncomfortable situation of having to cram his legs under a too low table or sit in a too small chair. Besides, it wasn't like many of the other ducks were ever in his quarters. Nosedive visited occasionally, always ragging on his large friend for the lack of possessions, but he was really the only one.

Early mornings were always spent in meditation. Reflecting upon the dreams he had experienced helped work out any subconscious issues he might not have noticed until they became larger problems. If he spent an hour in meditation each day, he was far calmer, centered, and able to handle whatever the world threw at him. On days he was unable to meditate, he remained as silent as possible. It wasn't like he had a bad temper or would harm anyone; he simply chose to spend the day in mindful quietude if he had not had time to contemplate the spiritual.

Settling down on his rounded zafu, Grin prepared for his morning meditation. Today, he chose kneeling over the lotus position, resting his hands on his thighs. A large, gray feathered hand delicately gripped the wooden striker and lightly tapped a golden zen bowl, clearing the energy of the room with its pure tone. Dark brown eyes closed and his mind focused on the still ringing note. Slowly, methodically, he counted his breaths as the swirling noise of his consciousness faded into the background and he connected to the spiritual realm.

Most often, this meditative state allowed Grin to passively watch his thoughts float by as a disconnected observer. He would mentally see and feel the concerns and plans for the day and consciously push them aside, choosing to focus on what was important rather than allow the meeting with Phil set for tmorrow to cloud his aura. Sometimes, he connected with his spirit guardians to share in their wisdom. Other times, rarely, messages would be brought to him from the ethereal plane. Today happened to be one of those rare instances.

_Grin found himself standing in the center of the Aerowing. The metal floor was cool under his bare feet. No lights were turned on, but the interior of the plane was well lit in this spiritual realm. Tan, alloyed walls gleamed in the otherworldly light. All was quiet as a sharply metallic, electrical scent floated to his nose and Grin saw that he was not alone._

_A tall drake stood next to the open side door of the plane. Violet and magenta waves of energy laced with icy blue bands danced behind the figure, obscuring any detail beyond an outline of his shape. He was tall and well muscled, wearing armor. His hair was cropped short, sticking up slightly in the front. Pure, white light tinged with a brilliant blue was barely visible around him._

_The shadow drake was facing Grin. Somehow, the meditating avian knew his spiritual companion was happy to see him and smiling. _

_Without physically moving or mentally registering the change in location, they had moved away from the door and towards the back of the Aerowing, near the rear hatch. The obscured spirit put its hand on the wall and knelt, sliding ephemeral fingers along the surface. He emphatically pointed to the floor, staring at something._

_The black pony-tailed head nodded in understanding. Words were not needed for the message to be heard. He was supposed to do something for this phantom, although what exactly wasn't clear yet. Grin had learned long ago to trust his instincts when it came to these interactions._

_His message delivered, the ghost drake stood and clasped a hand on Grin's shoulder. A dark battle patch was visible on the beak and green eyes reassuringly met brown for a moment before the connection was gone._

Purposefully, Grin took in several deep breaths, mentally following the air as it entered his nostrils, traveled down his throat and filled his lungs before making the return journey to the atmosphere. He focused on his heartbeat, happy to feel the strength of it. The soft, cotton of his clothing lay smoothly on his feathered skin. Rumbling in his stomach demanded sustenance. Finally, he opened his eyes and struck the bowl again, ending his meditation.

0000

Pale blue emergency lights were the only illumination in the hanger level of the Mighty Ducks secret base. Despite the low lighting, the damage to the Aerowing's fuselage was plainly visible. The nose of the plane curved upwards, bent and warped from the Alterian Creeper that pulled it from the sky. Scaffolding had been built on both sides of the aircraft to aid the ducks in reaching the mangled metal as they worked on repairs. Steel carts with tool boxes, blow torches, propane cylinders, face masks, and other protective gear reposed next to their taller scaffolding brothers.

Soft footsteps echoed off the walls as Grin walked to the back of the plane and up the ramp extending from the rear hatch. They typically left at least one entrance to the plane open so they could quickly take off if Dragaunus attacked. Despite being grounded, they followed the set protocol. Lucky for him, the area he needed was the most accessible.

Carefully running his hand along the smooth wall of the airships interior, Grin knelt where the figure in his meditation had. Disdaining to bring a flashlight or turn on any other illumination, he choose to explore the area both by energetic and physical touch. A rough spot where floor met wall caught his attention. Yes, this felt right. The gap was barely large enough for his fingers to fit, but he could feel something down there. Whatever it was must be important or he wouldn't have been sent here to retrieve it.

Frustrated at the size of his hands, Grin exited the plane and chose a pair of pliers from a toolbox resting on one of the carts. This time, he brought a flashlight as well. The golden beam of light fell on a familiar, round, black shape trapped in the small gap. With a dexterity belied by his size, Grin easily worked the thin tips of the pliers around the inch thick disc and freed it from its dark prison.

The entrapped disc was a well worn hockey puck. Gouges and chips marred the once smooth surface. Cracks along the edges resembled old pavement. None of these features were what made the item stand out from the rest of its better looking twins. An upside down green triangle with a navy blue 'C' interlocking a single hockey stick had been painted on it.

Slowly, Grin ran his thumb over the image, contemplating its meaning. Nothing immediately came to mind; he would have to meditate on the matter later. It was almost time for breakfast and then practice. He slipped the precious object into the pocket of his maroon pants and left the crippled Aerowing alone once more.

0000

Morning practice had been ruthless. Duke had no idea where Wildwing got the energy from after last nights mad exertions, but he drove them all hard. Other than the more strenuous than usual practice, the leader seemed completely normal. He joked with everyone, smiled, and was the confident team captain they had all come to know and respect.

"Great job out there, guys!" Phil praised as they all filed into the dressing room and started removing their equipment. "Keep it up!"

"What do ya want?" Duke demanded, in no mood for his managers shenanigans. He tossed his helmet onto the wooden shelf above a silver nameplate displaying his last name and number.

"Nothing!" Phil tried his hardest to look innocent. "Can't a manager give his team a little praise once in a while?"

Mallory threw her sweaty jersey onto Phil instead of the laundry bin.

"Hey!" The pot-bellied human quickly removed the odoriferous uniform from his head. "That stinks!"

"Sorry, Phil," Mallory smiled sweetly. "I thought you could do the laundry after you took out all that garbage you're trying to give us."

"Bahahaha!" Nosedive's laughter was instant and genuine, bringing energy to the tired team.

"Yeah, yeah," the human part of the team muttered. Suddenly, his eyes brightened with an idea as he held the jersey. "I'm gonna go list this on eBay! People will pay a fortune for one of your guy's practice jerseys!" He waved the white uniform above his head as if it were a victory flag. It might as well have been a red cloth dangled in front of a bull.

"Phil!" Mallory growled as she tried to get her jersey back. "Give me that!"

His size and lack of physical activity impeded his escape from the oncoming redhead's wrath. He made a valiant effort, but tripped over one of Wildwing's thick, white goalie leg pads. The pad was still connected to the ice skate by a toe strap, which the pale mallard had been working at unknotting.

"Help?" he pleaded as he looked up at the goalie.

Wildwing, bare chested and clad in only his hockey pants, shin guards, and one leg pad, gave the downed human an unsympathetic smile before uttering his favorite word to Phil.

"No," he said pointedly, eyes sparkling with mirth.

Mallory descended on her prey, ripping the jersey out of his grasp.

"Nice try, Phil," Nosedive teased.

The redhead balled her jersey up and threw it into the laundry bin from across the room, neatly landing the soiled uniform on the pile of dirty clothes as if she had shot a basketball. She put a smelly, socked foot on Phil's chest and leaned down for a closer look at him.

"Next time, don't try to run. It'll only make things worse." She then walked off, removing her shoulder pads to reveal her purple body suit underneath. Sitting down on the stall bench, she continued to remove the pads from her legs. It had taken a lot of work, but Chuck's equipment crew had finally convinced her that she could trust them with taking care of her gear. Now, she left it in the dressing room to be hosed down and cleaned by the rink rats instead of doing it herself. Once down to her body suit, she left the main part of the dressing room and followed Tanya into their private showers and locker room.

"Need a hand?" Wildwing offered when he finished undoing the last knot connecting pad to skate. Phil had remained on the floor and made no effort to rise.

"Thanks," he grunted slightly as he was pulled up.

Wildwing picked up the pad and inspected it for possible damage. Being satisfied that the manager's prodigious girth hadn't crushed it, he turned to hang it on the proper hook and propped a leg up on the bench. The white-feathered drake began unbuckling the many straps on his remaining gear.

"Hey," Phil said, looking carefully at Wildwing's back. A long scar, from shoulder blade to mid-back, ran down his left side. It was clearly an old one, healed over but leaving a slightly pink streak down the otherwise snowy back. "Where'd you get that scar?"

"Oh, uh..." Wildwing kept his back towards the manager, not wanting to turn around and show his face, but not happy with his backside being scrutinized. He hurried up in removing the second goal pad. "Nowhere."

"That?" Nosedive laughed. "Canard gave it to him during one of their lover's spats," he teased as he jerked a thumb towards his sibling.

Duke's head shot up, eye wide at the youth's implications. That _would_ explain the goalie's apparent immunity to DeCoy's wiles. Still, the thought had never occurred to him that there might be more between the two than friendship. No wonder he'd been so distraught at the loss of their former team captain.

"What? No!" Wildwing was horrified. "He's lying," the leader quickly denied his brother's falsehood. He pushed the smaller drake's shoulder, trying to knock him over and failing.

Nosedive's hard laughter assured the other males in the room that he had only been joking.

"Wing never tells the story of how he got that because he's too embarrassed about it."

"Wait," Phil was a little slow on the uptake. "Wildwing's gay? We can't let this get out! It'd ruin his image!"

Light blue eyes rolled as the goalie groaned. He loved his little brother most of the time, but there were moments when he wondered if his sibling's brain worked.

"No, Phil, I'm not gay. But Canard did give me that scar." He looked a little wistful at the mention of his fallen friend. "We were playing hockey in an alley when I was twelve. We fell and his skate cut me. End of story."

Nosedive's barely suppressed smile and the quick explanation suggested there was more to the tale than that.

"Gonna tell the rest, or should I?" the blond prompted.

"Now you've got me curious." Duke wanted to hear the rest of this story.

"Fine," Wildwing relented. "We had a video camera and I was laying on the ground, trying to get some good shots of Canard hitting the puck. I rolled over to catch it before it fell down a drain and tripped him with my leg."

"He totally flipped over!" Nosedive broke in, acting out the tale. "Canard did some sort of twistoid cartwheel and landed on Wing's back with his ice skates on. There was blood everywhere." He nodded once, completely satisfied with the story. "For some weird reason, Wing never tells what really happened. It's always something crazy like being attacked by a vicious dog or a freak blender accident."

Wildwing rolled his eyes once more. Did Nosedive have to constantly blab about that accident? It was embarrassing enough that he'd been injured by his best friend, much less the fact that he hadn't been wearing any padding to protect himself from such an incident.

"Yeah, yeah," Wildwing muttered. "I'll see you all in the cafeteria later." He headed towards the showers, eager to cleanse his body of the pungent aroma from morning practice. In his haste to escape, he neglected to realize that he was still wearing all of the lower half of his protective gear, sans goal pads and skates.

0000

Wildwing walked to his locker, toweling off his hair and not looking at who else might be in the room. A white towel was casually wrapped around his waist. He was used to being the last to leave the locker room. Removing all of his goalie pads took longer than the rest of his teammates gear, so he was typically in the showers last.

After he was satisfied that his hair was dry enough, he straightened out the towel and draped it across his strong, white shoulders. Opening his locker, he pulled out his green pants and an old, dark gray t-shirt with the outline of a bat screen printed on it. Well, the t-shirt was as old as anything they owned could be, having been on the planet for a mere four months. It was one of his least favorites, typically only worn when doing something dangerous to nicer clothing.

"Ah-hem," Duke cleared his throat as Wildwing pulled the shirt over his head.

"Oh! Hey. Didn't see you standing there." The team captain reached for his spiral bound, black team calendar that he had placed on the top shelf of his locker before practice. They would be going over plans for the week at their post-practice brunch. He set it down on the bench next to him as he began pulling on his boots.

"S'kay. Get enough rest last night?" The gray duck casually leaned on his locker, which was directly across from Wildwing's.

"Um, yes." He threw a sideways glance at Duke, wincing a little at the dark spot on his lower jaw. Despite still feeling remorse for his actions the night before, he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge them in the light of day.

"Hey, bout last night," Duke started as he nonchalantly opened his locker.

"I'm fine," Wildwing broke in, agitation edging out the reassurance in his voice. "I got enough rest and it won't happen again."

"What won't happen again? Punching me while you're having a nightmare or the sleepwalking?" Duke wasn't going to let Wildwing get out of this conversation that easily.

The leaders eyes narrowed slightly, wary of what Duke wanted. He studied the calm drake a moment before responding.

"Both."

"You an I both know that ain't true. If you've been sleepwalking long enough to have Nosedive lock you in, then it's not gonna stop cause you decide it should. Look, I'm not judging you here. I just wanta help, okay?" He pulled two hardbound journals from the depths of his locker, one lime green and the other navy blue. "Here, I got you and Nosedive these." He held them out. "You two can fight over who gets which color."

A frown covered the leaders face as he studied the proffered gift. He made no move to accept it, instead kicking his own locker closed and standing to walk away.

"Wing, I don't know what you and Nosedive have been through, but this can help. Just, take them. Will ya?" Duke stepped closer, still holding out the journals. "I don't know how well it'll work, but you're supposedta write down the nightmares and change the ending. It's some way of re-training your brain to not be afraid of the memories."

"Thanks," Wildwing sighed as he relented, despite his growing irritation with the teams center. Duke was trying to help, even it wasn't wanted or needed. He took the journals and set them on top of the calendar. "I'll let Dive pick which one he wants."

0000

Phil had insisted on joining the ducks for their morning meeting in the team cafeteria, a fact which only added to Wildwing's growing bad mood. He was doing his level best to remain civil to everyone, but Duke's prying, Nosedive's inappropriate joking, and Phil's demands were severely trying his patience. Lack of sleep diminished his already short fuse.

"How much longer do you think the Aerowing will take, Tanya?" Wildwing asked, tapping the end of his pen on the calendar in front of him. Translucent steam swirled and danced in the air above his styrofoam coffee cup before vanishing. A plate of half eaten fruit and toast sat next to it.

"Well," Tanya took a bite of her strawberry cream cheese covered bagel as she thought. "If we can finish removing the damaged panels and straighten the frame today, we should be able to put on a new skin tomorrow. So, I'd say two, maybe-uh-three days at most."

"Good." He quickly scribbled some notes and looked to the largest duck on the team. "Grin, do you have a time set for that fast food endorsement Phil set you up for?"

"Time is relative," the deep voice rumbled.

"Grin," Wildwing stared pointedly at the defenseduck, the irritation in his voice finally showing through.

"Tomorrow at three." He lifted his tea and delighted in the aroma before drinking, completely unphased by his leader's attitude. He could sense something was off, but now was not the time to push the matter.

"Okay. I think that's it." The unmasked leader scanned his notes and agenda once more, making sure he hadn't overlooked anything. "So we'll work on the Aerowing until two this afternoon, start getting ready for tonight's game around four, and go searching for Dragaunus once it's dark." He flipped the book shut and pushed his chair out, ready to stand.

"Don't forget the interview today!" Phil interrupted.

"What interview?" Wildwing growled. He opened his book again. "I don't see anything here and I don't recall you running this by me."

"So _that's_ what you wanted this morning," Mallory sighed as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned back a little, scowling. Like the others, she had dressed down after practice in preparation for the heavy work their aircraft required.

"Leave it to Phil to spring somethin' on us at the last minute." Duke's blasé attitude towards Phil's lack of planning and crazy stunts always amazed the other ducks. It seemed like very little ruffled his feathers.

"So, what's this one for?" Nosedive asked, cramming another homemade cream-filled doughnut in his beak.

"Don't worry, it's just a short thing," Phil assured. "The Gazette is just doing an article on who you are and where you come from. You know, the typical stuff. It should only take an hour or so."

"Phil, I'm sorry, but no." Wildwing stood and gathered his items. "Next time, tell us in advance."

"Well, boobie, they're kindofalreadyhere," Phil shrugged sheepishly as he slurred the last words together.

"Nice going, Phil," Mallory snarled. "Now we don't even have time to get changed!"

"It's just for a newspaper. There won't be any cameras," the manager tried to calm his team.

"Fine," Wildwing relented. "Where are they?"

0000

Despite the extensive remodeling the ducks had done to the locker room area after taking over the pond, they had chosen to leave the player lounge pretty much the way it was upon their arrival. The walls were still the same pale shade of blue that bordered on white, the sapphire carpet tinting the walls bluer than they really were. Two comfortable couches sat in front of a large television on the far side of the room while well-padded chairs reposed around a coffee table.

Two reporters from The Anaheim Gazette were sitting at the large, granite topped table in the center of the lounge, eschewing the more comfortable chairs and coffee table where these kind of interviews were normally held. White pendulum lights above the stone surface provided ample illumination. Someone had already brought them white styrofoam cups full of coffee.

The first reporter was a little mouse of a man, almost as short as Captain Klegghorn and as quiet as the captain was loud. Close cropped brown hair did little to hide his bulbous forehead. Coke-bottle glasses enlarged his already oversized eyes, which actually helped to pull attention away from his buckteeth. An out of style tweed jacket and matching bowtie only emphasized the rodent-like appearance.

If the first human in the room was a mouse, the second was a peacock. Her perfect posture commanded respect while the flaming red hair that fell to mid-back in wavy curls demanded attention. Sharp, green eyes focused in on each duck as they entered the room, quickly appraising her subjects. The neatly tailored, teal suit jacket allowed a little of the deep-cut, ruffled white blouse underneath to show. Her perfectly manicured nails matched the tint of her suit.

"Hello," the woman stood and extended her hand as the team spread out around the table and took seats. "I'm Jessica Banks."

"Hi," Wildwing clasped the hand in a firm grip and shook it before taking his seat next to her.

"This is R.O. Dent," Jessica introduced her companion. "He's a tad shy, but takes excellent notes."

Wildwing nodded to the shorter man, slightly perplexed by the lack of confidence the diminutive human presented.

R.O. made no move to meet any of the hockey players in the eye, choosing instead to focus on the steno pad in front of him. He fussed with the alignment of three perfectly sharpened pencils laying next to the yellow lined paper, making sure the erasers were all in a perfect row. Finally satisfied with his setup, he selected the outside pencil and carefully started writing the date, location, and each ducks name on the top of the page.

"Do you mind if I record this?" Jessica asked as she pulled a tape recorder from her gargantuan, plum hued purse resting on the floor.

"Not at all," Phil assured from his place behind Wildwing.

The duck crossed his arms and threw a glare over his shoulder at his manager before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment. When he felt calmer, he opened his eyes again and looked to the female columnist.

"No, that's okay."

"So, tell us a little about yourselves." The journalist looked straight at Duke. "What did you do for a job on your home world? Any hobbies?"

"Nothin' very interesting. I consulted for various security companies," he smoothly started. "Don't have much in the way of hobbies, but I guess you could say I like to collect shiny things."

Mallory's jaw dropped in amazement. That was as much as a bald faced lie in her book.

"What kind of consulting exactly did you do?" Jessica prompted.

"Eh, checked over their security systems and pointed out the flaws. Like I said, nothin' exciting."

"I see you're a little shocked by that answer, Mallory," Jessica instantly picked up on the other redhead's disbelief. "I thought you all were a pretty tightly knit group."

"We are," Mallory answered. "I just thought he worked for something else, is all."

"And you were military, from what I understand?"

"Puckworld Special Forces," she proudly informed. "Top fight commando in my unit and weapons specialist."

"Fascinating. So, your military allows women to serve?"

A raised eyebrow combined with a slightly incredulous look served as her answer.

"Ooh-kay. I'll take that as a yes. Have you seen action?"

"Of course!" Mallory didn't like this woman and her stupid questions. "We all have. It's kind of hard to miss the action when your home world is invaded."

"Ah, that story," the teal-nailed reporter smiled sweetly, treating their past as if it were a cover-up. "I take it you're all soldiers, then?"

"Not quite," Tanya broke in. "Mallory and Grin are the only two who were military before the invasion. The rest of us joined the resistance when we could."

Wildwing stayed silent, observing the interactions between his team and the reporters. Mr. Dent scribbled furiously, doing his level best to keep up with the fast paced conversation. Duke looked bored and Nosedive kept glancing towards the gaming system below the TV. Tanya was the only one who seemed completely relaxed in the interrogative atmosphere. Grin was, well, Grin. It was always difficult to tell what went on beyond that serenely stone facade of his. He could tell Mallory was pretty close to snapping at this ignorant human and actually looked forward to what might happen if she did. The corners of his beak twisted upwards a little as he suppressed a smile at the potential conflict.

"So, Grin," Jessica's attentions turned to the massive duck. "You were military? I'd have thought you would be a body builder, wrestler, or something else. You don't strike me as the soldier type."

"Even the peaceful must know how to defend themselves and others." He centered his full attention on the human in front of him, contemplating her line of question. "I am a chaplain, focused on helping those who must deal with combat."

"Really?" She seemed very interested in this. "And what were your duties as a chaplain?"

"I advise troops on the moral and ethical path to follow, care for the wounded, honor the fallen."

"I notice you say that in the present tense. How do you fulfill those duties on a hockey team?"

"Why do you think I can only be a chaplain in the military or on the ice? Just because I'm not playing hockey at the moment doesn't mean I'm not a defensedrake."

"Um..." She seemed quite perplexed by having her question turned around on her.

"Hey!" Mallory's eyes lit up as she remembered something. "You're Muscles McQuack! I can't believe I didn't realize that until now."

Grins impassive visage showed no reaction to the strange nickname or inkling of what the redhead was talking about.

"Muscles McQuack?" Nosedive scoffed. "Grinster, that's the worst nick-name I've ever heard of!"

"You helped my brother, Michael, several years ago. He'd been injured in a skirmish along the western border."

It was with a slight smile that Grin nodded.

"I remember him. He spoke of his family often." Finally, he acknowledged the terrible moniker. "I don't like the name, but it made him happy to call me that."

Nosedive's soft laughter drew the female reporter's notice.

"Nosedive," Jessica began. "You're the youngest player in the history of the NHL. I must admit, your skill on the ice is quite impressive. What do you do for fun?"

"Oh, the normal stuff," Nosedive grinned, happy to finally have some of the attention. "Read comics, go to the mall and hang with my friends, prank Mallory."

"You're what, eighteen?"

"Seventeen."

"Oh! I didn't realize you were quite _that_ young. Now, you're Wildwing's younger brother?"

"Yup! And the better looking one too, I might add." He laughed and elbowed his brother a little, relieved to get a small smile out of him.

"So, what did you do just before coming to Earth?"

Wildwing's heart dropped to his stomach at the question. This was _not_ something he was willing to discuss with his team, much less a nosey human. Cringing inwardly, he waited for the response.

"Oh, uh..." For once, the quick thinking youth was unable to come up with a sharp reply. "We were s-"

"Students," Wildwing broke in. "We were both students." He rose from his chair and pushed past Phil. "I'm done with this interview."

0000

"Hey, what was that all about?" Duke demanded as he followed Wildwing into the locker room.

The white drake had his back to the former thief, facing the large logo painted on the wall as he waited for their elevator to come take him below ground. There was no indication that he had heard Duke.

"Wildwing? Come on, talk ta me." He gently laid a hand on the leader's shoulder, hoping for an answer.

"What!" Anger mixed with fear burned in the captain's eyes as he whipped around, forcing Duke to take a step back.

"That was quite the exit you made back there. The kid's covering for ya." Duke was taken aback by the trapped look in his leader's eyes. It was too much like what he saw last night. One simple question was all it had taken to set him off again. Was Wildwing truly loosing it?

"At least he knew to leave me alone." Tension ran through his whole body, keeping him as rigid as a goal post.

"Eh, he said to let ya be. I decided to ignore 'im." The two drakes were standing close to each other, close enough for Duke to feel the rage radiating off Wildwing in furious waves. "Listen, she didn't know what she was asking. How could she?"

"Just, back off, Duke," Wildwing warned as he stepped into the elevator. "I don't need help."

"Yes, you do!" Duke grabbed his shirt and pulled him off the elevator, allowing the doors to close.

White hands bunched into fists as blue eyes glared at the thief's hold on the shirt. It took barely a second for the thought to register before Wildwing lifted his hands to Duke's chest and shoved him away with more strength than he intended, throwing his comrade to the floor.

"Okay, I'm gonna let you get away with that one," Duke cautioned as he picked himself up. "I forgave you for last night. Hell, the thought didn't even occur to me to hold that punch against ya. But I'm warning you, do that again and I _will_ take you down."

Silence met the threat. Wildwing showed no remorse at his action or indication that he would back down.

"Listen, Wing, what you've been through, it doesn't just go away if you ignore it," Duke tried again.

"You think you can help me? Loosing an eye isn't exactly the same as being forced to help the enemy kill your own."

"That was low. You don't know anything about this," Duke angrily pointed to his eye patch. "I was young and stupid, just like you're being right now."

"What is said in anger can never be unsaid," Grin's tranquil voice washed over the festering fight. He calmly walked up to Wildwing and held out his closed fist, offering him something.

Stunned by the appearance of the team's enforcer, the mask-barer automatically held his wing palm up and a familiar weight filled his hand. He stared at the painted puck, beak hanging open in shock. All the rigidness left his posture as he realized what he was holding.

Grin lay a caring hand on his captains left shoulder, slightly surprised at the small jump he felt when he did so.

"You know where to find me when you're ready." With that, the gentle giant returned to the interview.

Wildwing's gaze moved from the precious puck to the massive retreating back. He could still feel the sensation of a ghost hand on his shoulder, just above the scar. A barely heard voice floated through his mind. _I've got your back, buddy._

"Wing?" Duke was amazed at the difference Grin's quick appearance had made. Suddenly, the goalie went from begging for a fight to silent and almost tranquil.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Duke." His voice was calm and held true regret. The captain turned once more to the elevator and punched in the code. "I just need to be alone right now."

For the first time that day, the gray drake was willing to honor his leader's wishes.


	3. Naked, pt 2

"What the hell, Wing!" Nosedive opened the door to their shared room, sounding more angry than he really was. He carried the team calendar and both journals that had been left behind at the captain's sudden departure.

The scene in their room wasn't unexpected. There was his normal morning mess, laying next to the beds. One of these days, he'd get in the habit of tossing his dirty clothes straight into the laundry basket. The bright orange tip of his brothers beak was barely visible behind the air hockey table on the far side of the room. One step to the right and he was able to fully see his dozing leader. Wildwing was laying down on the couch, one arm over his eyes and the other laying across his stomach.

"What's the big idea, storming out like that?" the younger Flashblade demanded as he set his burden down on the raised edge of the game table.

Slowly, his brother's head turned to face him and the arm lifted a little to reveal his eyes. Wildwing looked exhausted and confused.

"Sorry." The single word was all he chose to utter at the moment.

"Don't you sorry me, mister." Nosedive put his hand on his hip in an imitation of their mother as he shook a finger threateningly. Giving up the act, he moved closer and looked down at the white drake, enjoying the ability to loom over his bigger brother for a change. "Seriously, bro, don't leave me alone in an interview like that again. If you do, your life goal will be something worse than becoming the universe's best pastry chef."

"What? Why that?" He finally sat up, grasping something that had been hidden between his hand and stomach. A gold bracer fell to the floor with a sharp clink.

Nosedive's gaze transfixed on the neatly cut metal and he was instantly transported to the past.

_A large robotic hand grasped Nosedive's forearm and pulled him towards the ominous press. He'd already witnessed half a dozen ducks have their wings shoved into a small opening in the massive, rust colored machine as a slave cuff was affixed around their right wrist. Now, it was his turn._

_"Ow! Hey! Not so rough!" Nosedive complained as the hunter drone shoved him towards the enslaving equipment. He looked over his shoulder, hoping Wildwing would break into action and rescue him. _

_Two hunter drones pointed laser equipped arms at his brother, preventing any movement. Wildwing stood strong, hands resting on the shoulders of the black haired, sobbing six year old clinging to his waist. Anger smoldered in his gaze, but he made no move to aid his sibling._

_Nosedive's wing was shoved into that horrid aperture and hot metal wrapped around his wrist, hissing as it sealed in place forever. Despite the burning sensation and pressure, he refused to express his pain vocally._

_A new hunter drone grabbed him from the slave press and shoved him forward, towards a pen already packed full of terrified Puckworlders. There wasn't room for many more. He prayed Wildwing and Mikayla would be put in the same pen as himself._

_It wasn't long before his prayer was answered and he was joined by his brother and the duckling they had adopted. Mikayla hadn't stopped crying once since the drones had captured them outside their hidden encampment. Wildwing had picked her up and was holding her close, favoring his right wing slightly._

_"Hey, squirt," Nosedive rubbed her back soothingly. "It'll be okay. They left us together, didn't they?"_

_He grimaced at the red, raw patch on his wrist from the metal being forced into place. The slave bracelet was too tight, rubbing his feathers the wrong way. It stretched from wrist to mid forearm with three segmented ridges making up the length. Despite being intended to stay on the limb forever, the edges of the gauntlet were sharp and cutting, not rounded off to allow for free movement like he would have expected. It was a good thing he and Wildwing were left handed; the cuffs wouldn't cause them as many problems at they would other ducks. An outline of a flying bird of prey was imprinted on the top of the bracer with a number just below it. He didn't have to ask to know that there was a tracking device embedded within the insidious bracelet somewhere. As long as that piece of unwanted jewelry adorned his person, he would never be able to escape._

_"Here." The blond youth ripped a strip of cloth from his sleeve and tucked it in around Mikayla's slave bracelet. "That should help a little."_

_Large, red rimmed, green eyes carefully took in the makeshift bandage. She whimpered and buried her head in Wildwing's neck for comfort, but the crying did lessen._

_"Wing, what are we gonna do?"_

_"Stay together." Wildwing looked around the compound. Groups of ducks were gathered into large cages, guarded by hunter drones. Each cage was eventually loaded onto the back of a large truck and driven off to who knows where. "No matter what, we stick together."_

Nosedive blinked as the memory faded and he came back to the present. His brother hadn't moved from his sitting position on the couch. Now, the goalie was resting his elbows on his knees, studying something in his hands. The flashback had lasted seconds, despite feeling like hours.

"Why do you still have that?" Nosedive's voice was accusing as he motioned to the fallen symbol of their slavery by his brothers feet.

"To remember." Wildwing met his younger sibling's gaze as he picked up the bracelet and set it on the cushion next to him. "And in hopes that Tanya can get some information off it some day."

"Wing, dude, you know that's impossible. Canard hit them with that localized EMP and killed them. You should have left it on Puckworld."

"If anyone can recover the data that's on here, Tanya can. Who knows how many lives it might save when we get back?"

Nosedive sighed in frustration. Seeing that slave bracelet awoke memories he'd rather leave behind forever. Pushing away memories of the past, he focused on what Wildwing was doing this very moment. The puck his brother was slowly turning over in his hands finally caught his attention. He caught a glimpse of the painted 'C' interlocking a single hockey stick.

"Is that-?" It couldn't be.

"Yeah. It is." Wildwing held it out, offering a closer look. "I don't know why Grin had it or where it came from; but, it's one of Canard's."

The solid weight passed from white hand to tan and he studied the painted rubber. Yes, this was one of Canard's old pucks. One of the girls in school who had a crush on Canard had created the logo and painted a dozen of them for his birthday one year. While the three had laughed about it, Canard had used the gifts in play. He'd thought they had worn out all of them, but one apparently survived. How did this make it through the invasion and onto Earth?

"Dive, I-" Wildwing sighed as he took the puck back. "I think I'm going crazy."

"What, you? Got news for ya, bro. You're already crazy. Have been for years."

"Nosedive, I'm serious." His pleading gaze begged for comfort, doing nothing to hide the internal anguish he normally concealed from the world.

The smaller duck finally sat next to his brother, tossing the odious slave bracelet onto the game table and out of sight. His fingers itched from touching the metal. Rubbing them against the smooth fabric of his pants helped dissolve the irritating sensation.

"If you're crazy, then I am too."

"The nightmares are getting worse." He sighed and rubbed his face, looking at the floor. "How'd I even manage to get out last night?"

"Guess you saw me change the code. I'll be sneakier about it tonight, promise." He flashed a large grin, trying to lighten the mood. "Hey, we've got a game later. You ready to pound those Florida Flamingos to a pulp?"

"Yeah, I guess." The lack of enthusiasm was slightly disturbing. Wildwing loved a good hockey game. Something about last night's events must have really troubled him.

"What was the dream about?" Maybe this was one of the rare times where they could talk about it. Generally, they helped each other through whatever the immediate crisis was and then instantly ignored it. If they didn't acknowledge it, it didn't exist. Nosedive could count the number of times they'd actually spoken about the events after the invasion on one hand.

Wildwing glanced at him sideways, not saying a word. After several moments, he looked back down to the puck in his hands and spoke to it rather than his brother.

"The rebellion. For whatever reason, I was still leading the camp against those drones. If it hadn't been for those traitorous lizard lovers, we might have won and-" He didn't have to say it out loud for both of them to know what the next part was.

"Yeah. I know." This wound wasn't one he was willing to pick at just yet. Maybe some day. Maybe never.

"We're pretty much screwed up for life, aren't we?" Wildwing sighed as he leaned back, resting his head on the wall, eyes closed.

"Speak for yourself. I'm perfectly normal, thank you very much."

"Dive, you've never been normal." Wildwing playfully ruffled the tawny hair, making it stick up on top.

"Where's the fun in normal?" He tried smoothing down his hair, combing through it with his fingers. "Come on, we've got work to do on the Aerowing and the others have already started without us." Standing to leave, he grabbed Wildwing's shoulder in an attempt to pull him up. A muffled thump announced the misplaced books new home on the floor as his rear end knocked them over.

"Oh, yeah!" The young drake knelt and picked up the fallen items. "You left these behind." He offered them to his now standing sibling.

"Thanks." Wildwing took them, tucking the calendar under one arm and holding each journal out in one hand. "Duke got these for us. You can pick which one you want."

"Hey, green's your color," Nosedive said with a smile as he took the blue one. "What's this for?" He flipped it open and found an envelope inside with his name on it. "Guess he knew which one I'd take."

"Duke said we're supposed to write down the nightmares and change the ending," he shrugged as he opened his journal and found an envelope with his name on it as well. "I'll read what it says later." Tossing the emerald covered journal and calendar on the lower bunk, he headed for the door. "We should get back to the others."

0000

Duke glanced at the door as Wildwing and Nosedive entered the hanger together. They both looked okay; but, if he'd learned anything in the past twenty-four hours, it was that the Flashblades were experts at hiding their emotions.

"Look who I found sleeping on the job," Nosedive joked, jerking a thumb towards Wildwing.

"It's about time you got here!" Mallory shouted from her perch atop the Aerowing's cockpit. She turned off the blow torch she'd been using and lifted the protective face shield. "We lost enough time because of that interview. Now you two are off lollygagging!"

"Sorry about that, Mallory," Wildwing apologized as he reached the scaffolding. "Tanya, where we at?"

"Just grab a, um, torch and come up," the blond technician directed. "We're almost done with the nose. If we can get the rest of these panels off, we might be able to get the frame straightened today."

Wildwing dutifully obeyed and climbed the tall framework to participate in their stealth fighters restoration. This was Tanya's realm of expertise and he willingly followed her direction when it came to keeping their vehicles in top condition.

"Hey, anyone up for some music?" Nosedive remained on the ground and looked around for a stereo.

"No!" Tanya, Duke, Grin, and Mallory all shouted at once. The last time they had let Nosedive pick what they listened to while working together, they had all been graced with obnoxiously loud electric guitars and angry shouting that tried to pass for music.

"Kid, you play anymore of that death metal and I'll show you some real screaming."

"The anger in those songs greatly disturbed my inner peace."

"Absolutely not," Tanya's nasal voice dictated. "My ears are still ringing from that Ram- Ramst- Oh! Whatever it was!"

"Ramstein," Nosedive smiled. "Hey, don't blame me for it! One of the customers at Captain Comics recommended it when Thrash and Mookie were talking about music."

Wildwing laughed as he shifted a metal face shield into place.

"Dive, you should know better than to listen to those two when it comes to musical tastes. Besides, the music would just be a distraction. We should pay attention to what we're doing."

Nosedive rolled his eyes and mimicked his brother's speech while silently mouthing 'blah, blah, blah,' and tapping his fingers and thumb together like a flapping mouth. Satisfied that he had proved his disdain for Wildwing's opinion of his human friends, he donned a pair of thick, leather gloves and selected a pneumatic air saw before heading up. While some of the others preferred to use the blow torches, he chose the precision of the air circular saw.

"Glasses," Mallory reminded when she saw him stepping towards the cockpit to help her.

"Oops." Shoulders raising in a shrug, he set the flashlight sized tool at his feet and headed back to the ground. "Watch this for me, will ya?"

Now it was Mallory's turn to roll her eyes. Honestly, Nosedive should be more mature than having to be told about basic safety measures. She wasn't his mother and shouldn't have to remind him about simple things.

Time flew quickly while the team worked together on their mangled plane. They joked and laughed, enjoying each others company. It wasn't long before they had reached the yellow striping a third of the way back from the nose of the plane.

"Wow, nice work, guys!" Phil praised as he entered the hanger. "You'll have this baby back in the air in to time!"

Duke could hear Wildwing growl softly in frustration. Phil just didn't know when to leave someone alone. Not that Duke did either; he was just better at not being seen.

"Grin, booby, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"What about?" His voice was serenely calm, as always. Did anything besides Dragaunus ever disrupt his inner peace?

"Just tomorrow's photo shoot. Oh, Mallory, I need you too." Phil tried to look innocent, tapping his index fingers together and pulling his head down towards his shoulders a little to appear smaller.

"No!" She stood and once again turned off the torch. "I'm not doing that photo shoot!" The glare sent Phil's way could have done a better job of cutting through the plane's skin than her chosen tool.

"It's not that, I promise. Chuck just got the new shoulder pads your ordered. He doesn't think it'll fit you. Something about um... The chest not being big enough."

"Grrrah! Stupid humans. Why don't they make basic equipment for women?" The agitated redhead stormed down the scaffolding, pushing past Phil and towards the elevator.

"I don't envy Chuck that discussion," Nosedive muttered as he followed Grin down the scaffolding. His saw needed a new blade before he could continue working.

"Yeah, I'm glad we're still up here," Duke told Wildwing.

"No kidding. I don't think either of those conversations are going to be much fun. Hey, I need more acetylene. How's your torch doing?"

Duke shook the small, olive green canister to judge how much was left.

"Eh, got about half."

The goalie nodded before descending the metal framework. When he reached the bottom, he discovered a distinct lack of spare acetylene tanks.

Screeching, groaning, clanging that seemed to go on forever filled the air as Tanya knocked over a pile of damaged panels. Heavy, metal sheets the size of car doors clattered to the floor in a grand cacophony.

Duke winced at the loud noise. It sounded too much like one of the saurian monitor towers landing during the invasion.

"Oh, no..." Duke's one eye widened at the realization. For him, the noise evoked a sick knot in the pit of his stomach that quickly disappeared. What had it done to Wildwing and Nosedive? He leaned away from the scaffolding for a better view, ignoring Tanya's apology.

Nosedive was frozen in place, his gaze vacant. Even from this distance and height, he could tell the youth was trembling. There was no way Nosedive or Wildwing would want the rest of the team to know about this. He had to distract Tanya.

"Ey, Tanya!" Duke called loudly. "I need help with this panel. Seems ta be stuck." He hoped he had caught her attention in time.

The purple suited duck picked up an abandoned blow torch from the wooden flooring of the scaffolding one level below Duke and brought it up with her, not registering what havoc the loud noise had wrought.

"What's wrong with it?" She carefully inspected the crumpled, white metal.

"I can't get it to budge," he exaggerated. "Seems ta be crimped down there pretty good. I can't get it loose from both ends at the same time. Think ya can help me?"

She carefully studied the damaged alloy. The mental calculations she ran were muttered softly as she bent over the warped plane.

Duke was satisfied that he had successfully pushed her into that hyper-focused world she entered when working on something. Knowing she wouldn't notice anything else around her for several minutes, he leaned back and checked up on the brothers once more.

Nosedive was still frozen, staring at something nobody else could see. Wildwing wrapped his arms around his sibling, gently rubbing his back and providing support.

"It's okay, Nosedive," the elder drake soothed. "I'm fine. Come back. We're safe now." He rested his beak on the blond head and moved it back and forth a little, mussing the golden locks.

The teen was visibly trembling, taking in air in short, rapid gasps. His glazed eyes darted around while his body remained immobile.

"Come on, Dive. I'm not sick anymore." Wildwing's calming voice took on a low, sing-song quality as he slowly talked his brother back to reality. "We're in the Pond. I'm right here. Everything's safe."

Not sick anymore? That piqued Duke's curiosity. He'd heard about an illness than ran through a few of the prison camps. But, from his understanding, nobody ever recovered from it.

Nosedive's breathing deepened as the trembling gradually subsided. Finally, the tension in his posture released.

"Look at me, Nosedive," Wildwing gently commanded. "Focus on me. I'm here. We're just fine. It's okay to come back."

The youngest Mighty Duck took in a huge breath and let it out in a gigantic sigh as his eyes refocused on the present. For a moment, he returned his brother's embrace, relaxing in the strong arms. With a devious grin, he pushed Wildwing away.

"Come on, man! What're you trying to do? Ruin my image?" The gratitude sparkled in his dark blue eyes, even if his words brushed off the support he'd just received.

Wildwing smiled and reached out for Nosedive's hair to mess it up even more.

"Can't a big brother show a little love once in a while?" He moved to hug Nosedive again, causing the younger drake to laugh and run off.

Duke smiled a little wistfully at the quick turnaround Wildwing had worked. Nosedive had been right last night- they had each other. He was also amazed at how quickly they both hid the mental scarring, covering it up with their normal teasing banter.

"Duke!" Tanya's nasal voice broke his reverie. "Pay attention!"

"Sorry, Tanya." He threw her one of his best roguish smiles. "Kinda hard to pay attention when I've got such a good lookin' duck up here with me."

She glared at him and held up the unlit blow torch as a warning.

"Don't try sweet talking me, mister. You asked for my help, so pay attention." She quickly laid out her idea for removing the stubborn piece of wrecked fuselage. It was a good plan, quick and efficient, with minimal cutting required. They might even be able to re-use this panel if they were careful.

"Hey!" Nosedive called up to them. "I'm gonna go make some sandwiches. You guys want anything?"

"No, thanks," Duke refused. "Maybe later."

"Duh-yeah! Can you maybe bring me an apple?" Tanya asked.

"Sure thing, girly-girl!" He turned back towards the door, gray gloved hand raised in farewell as he left.

"I think I'll help him," Wildwing said, casually following.

"Hm." Duke watched the brothers leave, knowing they needed more than physical sustenance.

By the time two o'clock rolled around, they had finished removing all of the damaged skin from the plane. Straightening the frame would have to wait until tomorrow.

0000

Nosedive hopped up on his bunk, craving his pre-game nap yet afraid of the dreams sleep might bring. Leaning down, he checked up on Wildwing resting on the bunk below him. Amazingly, he looked like he was already asleep. On second thought, it shouldn't be a surprise, considering how little sleep he'd gotten last night.

Sighing to himself, he rolled onto his back and stared at the maze of pipes above his bed. Silence shouldn't be so loud. He knew Grin was off in his room meditating, mentally preparing for the challenge they would face tonight. Mallory and Duke were probably sparring; either that or fighting and pretending it was part of their pre-game warm-up. It was probably a good thing Mallory took out any aggression on Duke before games; it helped them avoid penalties when players on the other team set off her short fuse. Tanya was most likely in her lab, working on some project. She claimed that working on inventions was relaxing and more rejuvenating than a nap.

Annoyed with the silence and his churning thoughts, Nosedive reached into the built in cubby in the wall and retrieved his discman and headphones. A quick check proved his Hootie and the Blowfish CD was still in the player. Satisfied that music would help, he closed his eyes and listened to "Be the One," determined not to... think... about... Mikay...

_"Think she's going to be okay?" Nosedive looked down at the young duckling they had pulled from the rubble of a collapsed home earlier that morning. She was so small, surely no older than four or five. Long, curly black hair that fell to mid-back was very heavily knotted and matted. Her creamy feathers looked almost gray from all the dirt caking her body. Ragged clothing hanging off her skinny frame might have been a pink dress at one point. She clutched a stuffed bunny rabbit tightly, refusing to let go of it even in sleep._

_"I think so. It doesn't look like she has any broken bones or injuries." Wildwing carefully looked out the narrow window near the ceiling, checking to see if anyone had seen them dash into the basement they currently camped out in. "We don't have much food. It'll be tough finding more alone, but I think one of us should watch her tonight while the other looks for something to eat."_

_"You stick out more at night. I'll go."_

_"Be careful." Wildwing knelt next to his backpack and checked on their supplies. The canteens were full enough for the next two days, even with a third duck added to their small party. Food was scarce and they'd been carefully rationing what they could; despite the meager allotments, there was only enough left for tonight's meal and a quick bite in the morning. _

_"Ungh," a soft groan came from the child as she sat up, rubbing sleep from her bright green eyes. Bunny was hugged tightly to her chest as she took in her new surroundings. "Where's Mommy and Daddy?"_

_Nosedive and Wildwing glanced at each other, trying to figure out what to tell her._

_"I'm sorry," Wildwing started. "They're not here."_

_"Oh," she looked sad. "I forgot. They had to go away." Standing up, she smiled at the two drakes. "Are you going to look after me? Mommy promised someone would take care of me if she had to leave."_

_"Sure, squirt," Nosedive promised, ruffling her hair. "We'll look after you. Name's Nosedive and that's my brother Wildwing."_

_"Hi," she timidly smiled._

_"What's your name?" Wildwing asked as he rearranged the gear in his pack._

_"Mikayla. I'm six!" She proudly held up both hands with six fingers up to show how old she was; Bunny stayed nestled in her elbow._

_"It's very nice to meet you, Mikayla," Wildwing smiled. His smile vanished as she rubbed her temple, moving matted hair away from a bloody gash on her head. "Are you hurt?"_

_A small shrug served as her answer. _

_"Here, let me take a better look." The white drake pulled their first aid kit from his pack and knelt next to the child. Gently pushing her hair away, he could see a small gash on her left temple. It didn't look deep and had already scabbed over. Still, he wanted to make sure it didn't get infected._

_"Doesn't look too bad," he soothed. "I'm just going to wash it out and put a bandage on it. Okay?"_

_She nodded and very patiently sat still while the cut was tended to. Her eyes lit up at the neon orange bandaid Wildwing pulled from his pack to put over the small wound. Eager for another brightly colored sticker, she pointed to her elbow._

_"This hurts too." Mikayla tried her best to pout and look sad that her elbow had a boo-boo._

_"Uh-oh," Wildwing glanced at Nosedive, a hidden smile playing at the corners of his beak. This was a trick a certain blond duckling had tried several times when they were growing up. "This looks serious. I'm going to have to use something better than a bandaid for that."_

_"Really?" Emerald eyes brightened in curiosity. "What?"_

_"Magic." Wildwing held up his index finger and middle finger and lightly tapped her elbow twice, chanting, "Two, four, hurt no more."_

_A soft gasp accompanied the astounded expression on the child's face as she stared at her elbow. The small ache was indeed gone. Suddenly jumping up, she skipped around, singing and making her own magic._

_"Two, four, hurt no more! Two, four, hurt no more!" Spinning in a circle, she held Bunny out, dancing with her stuffed friend. _

_Laughter filled the basement hideout for a moment before Nosedive caught her and reminded their new little sister that they had to be quiet._

_0000_

_"Braid it!" Mikayla demanded loudly._

_"Shhh!" Nosedive reminded again. "The hunter drones might hear you." He carefully worked his comb through the long curls, futilely trying to work out the knots. It was amazing how quickly that mop of ringlets could tangle. No sooner had he worked out the snarls than she'd be running around and making a mess of it again._

_"Well, braid it." Annoyance accompanied the quieter tone._

_"Just because I have long hair doesn't mean I know how to braid," Nosedive informed. _

_"I can't believe you still haven't figured that out yet," Wildwing teased. His brother's inability to untie knots or even do a simple braid had been something he'd teased him about for years. "Want me to do it, Kayla?"_

_"No," she pouted. "You hurt when you comb."_

_"Okay," Nosedive had an idea. "How about I comb and he braids?"_

_The duckling didn't look convinced._

_"He's really good at it," Nosedive promised. _

_"Okay," she finally relented._

_When he was finally done working out all the knots, Nosedive stood and let Wildwing take his place on the block of concrete he'd been using for a chair. The goalie sat and neatly divided up the dark hair into three even chunks before quickly braiding it without pulling or tugging too hard. When he was done, he tied it off with a piece of shoe lace from some ice skates laying amongst the rubble._

_"Wow," Mikayla smiled. "You're good!"_

_"I ought to be, after fifteen years. Nosedive always tried stealing my skates when we were little. The only way to keep him from taking them was to braid the laces together or do a really big knot."_

_"Hehehehe!" Her laughter was infectious. "Divey can't braid!"_

_"Yeah, yeah. Keep it to yourself, will ya, short stuff?"_

_0000_

_"Why are you sad?" Mikayla's earnest gaze broke Nosedive's reverie. She was supposed to be asleep while he stood watch._

_"I just miss my parents." He sniffled a little bit, trying to hide the tears. He had a little sister to look out for now. Showing any signs of weakness was unacceptable; she looked up to him and he couldn't let her down._

_"I miss mine too." Bunny was tightly clutched to her chest as she looked at her feet. Suddenly, she brightened and thrust Bunny towards the blond duck. "Here. Whenever I'm sad, Bunny gives me a big hug and makes me feel better."_

_Giving her a lopsided smile, Nosedive took the proffered stuffed animal and gave it a gentle hug, more to humor her than make himself feel better._

_"See?" She took her old friend back. "All better. Bunny says I'll find my parents again someday. I bet you'll find yours too."_

_"Maybe." He knew better. Her parents were dead. They had discussed telling her the truth, but she would always tell them that her parents had to go away and that she knew they weren't here anymore. How did one explain death to a six year old? "I hope so."_

_Suddenly, two scrawny arms wrapped around his neck as the small child gave him the biggest hug she could manage._

_"I love you, Divey," she whispered before breaking away and skipping off towards Wildwing's sleeping form. She looked down at him, head cocked slightly to the side, contemplating something. With a mischievous grin, she tucked Bunny into the crook of his arm. Turning around, she pointed at the large drake, one hand covering her dainty beak as she tried to stifle laughter. She then lay down next to him, hands folded neatly under her head for a pillow. In seconds, she was fast asleep, secure in the knowledge that she had two strong protectors to look out for her in this dangerous world._

_0000_

_"Wing. Come on, bro. You've got to eat something." Nosedive worriedly gazed at his brother's face. Wildwing lay on the ground, his head in Nosedive's lap. The white drakes eyes were half closed, his feathers fluffed up, and he trembled slightly. His breathing was labored. The fever had been raging for the past five days and he'd hardly been able to get any food into him. If Wildwing didn't eat soon, he wouldn't last much longer._

_Nosedive carefully squeezed excess water out of the bread he'd soaked in it. The bread the Hunter Drones provided was always stale and difficult to eat, even when completely healthy. He'd hoped that by soaking it in water it would become soft enough for Wildwing to swallow without having to chew too much._

_"Come on," he pleaded as he held the quarter-sized piece of bread next to his brother's mouth. "Take a bite."_

_The beak parted slightly and Nosedive put the food in, watching as his ill sibling slowly chewed the meager food and swallowed._

_Hope lifted his spirits. Maybe, just maybe, Wildwing could beat whatever this illness was. It may have already claimed a full half of their slave camp, but Wildwing could survive. He had to._

_"Want more?" He offered another small bite, which was reluctantly taken. When that had been swallowed, Nosedive presented a third piece._

_Wildwing sadly met his brother's eyes for a moment before closing his own, his head lolling to the right._

_Nosedive sighed. The hope he had felt earlier fled, leaving an even deeper pit of despair in his stomach._

_0000_

_"Wildwing! NO!" Nosedive held onto his brother's arm tightly, trying to pull him free from the hunter drone's grasp._

_"Dive, let go," Wildwing commanded. Terror filled his eyes, but he wasn't going to let his little brother get hurt trying to save him._

_"Never!"_

_Suddenly, two red androids were on either side of Nosedive, fingers retracting back into their arms and reappearing as laser blasters._

_"Remove your hands," the flat, robotic voice demanded. _

_"Dive, I'll find you. No matter where they take me, I'll find you."_

_He could feel the heat emanating from those two weapons pointed directly at him, warming up for a fatal shot. Hating himself for it, he finally let go and watched as his brother was pulled away from him, along with a dozen other prisoners._

_"WILDWING!"_

0000

Wildwing awoke to his brother screaming his name. Instantly on his feet, he checked the top bunk. Nosedive was thrashing about, arms flailing. Headphones were on his head, the cord dangerously close to wrapping around his neck and strangling him. It was too risky to try shaking him awake when he was like this; he'd been injured more than once when Nosedive was in this terrified state.

Grabbing a nearby hockey stick, he poked his brother's ribs from a safe distance.

"Dive, wake up. Dive! Nosedive!"

"Wah-AAH!" The blond youth shot straight up, eyes wide, breathing heavy. After a moment, he removed the headphones.

"Dive, come on. What have I told you about sleeping with headphones on?"

"Sorry, Wing." He smiled sheepishly. "What time is it?"

"Time to get ready for the game."

"Sounds good. I could use some exercise after that nightmare."


	4. Interlude

Nosedive entered the dressing room to find a fuming Mallory. Apparently, her discussion with Chuck hadn't gone exactly the way she'd hoped. She was mostly ready for the game, except for her shoulder pads and jersey. The irate redhead stormed about the dressing room, shoulder pads in hand, shaking them and yelling.

"I can't believe that there are only three equipment manufacturers on this entire planet who even make female hockey gear!" The offending padding was angrily swung against a bench in punishment for its inadequacy.

"Calm down, sweetheart. You'll find somethin eventually. Just gotta be patient and keep lookin."

"Don't call me sweetheart!" Mallory shoved a finger dangerously close to Duke's beak, glaring at him. "You guys are lucky enough to pick what equipment you use. I get three choices. That's it, THREE!"

"Okay, Mallory," Wildwing tried to soothe his weapons specialist. "Let's just get ready for the game. We'll help look for something else tomorrow."

"Don't think I can't find properly fitting shoulder pads because I haven't been looking hard enough." She threw the white protective gear to the floor in disgust and sat down at one of the empty stalls, wings folded, glaring at the rubbish she had just cast away.

"Well, what have you been using?" Tanya asked as she slipped on her shoulder pads, adjusting the fit of the biceps protector.

Somewhat dejectedly, Mallory stood and went back to her own stall, kicking the new padding on her way over. She pulled down the nearly worn out shoulder pads and handed them to Tanya.

"Some Bauer junior's pads. They fit fine through the shoulders and the length of the back protector is good. I'm sick and tired of having to cram myself into this thing. There's just not enough room for my chest." Suddenly, she got a funny look as she took in Tanya's gear. "Hey, you're bigger than me. How come you're not having this problem?"

"Oh, uh, um..." Tanya suddenly lost the ability to speak as she noticed the males in the room once more. Grin was studiously ignoring the discussion while Wildwing had his back to them and seemed very intent on the many straps attaching his goal pads to his legs. Nosedive and Duke, however, were happily watching the two women. "Can we maybe, you know, talk about this later?"

Mallory looked over her shoulder and glared at Duke and Nosedive.

"Get your head out of the gutter, L'Orange."

"Hey, I ain't the one talking about my chest size here." He threw an evil smile her way. "Sounds like you're still all wound up. Care for a few more go rounds before the game?"

"As if," she snorted. "I trounced you fair and square."

"Next time, we use swords. Then we'll see who wins."

"Cool it, you two," Wildwing warned. "If you want to fight, take it out on the Flamingo's goal."

"I dunno, bro, it was getting kind of interesting. Maybe we should let them at it."

"Please," Tanya begged, "Don't encourage them!"

"Hey," Wildwing gave his brother a funny look. "Aren't you normally dancing around by now?"

"Eh," Nosedive did his best Duke impression with a shrug. "Don't feel like it today."

Wildwing shook his head in disbelief. Nosedive _always_ danced to the music coming from the arena before games; it was part of his good luck, pre-game ritual. This did not bode well for tonight's game.

0000

Wildwing sat on a tall stool in the middle of the hallway leading to the Mighty Duck's dressing room. He had combed his hair and changed into his gold and white jacket in an attempt to look nice for yet another interview. His mask had been left behind in the locker room, guarded by the rest of the team as they finished cleaning up from the game.

This particular TV show chose to film their interviews in the hallways of arenas. Apparently, they liked the visual of hockey players and personnel walking around in the background, going about their business and wrapping up after the game.

"Just, forget it," Wildwing sighed as the headset yet again slid down to rest around his neck. "It's not going to work."

"Maybe if we-" the brunette technician started.

"No." Wildwing was fed up with these humans trying to make that ridiculous headset designed to wrap around a human's head and rest on their ears fit him. Ducks didn't have external ears, plain and simple.

"Fine," she finally gave in. "I think we have one of the older microphones around here somewhere." Finding the errant equipment, she clipped it to the front of his jacket. "Now, just run the battery pack through here," she directed.

"Thank you, but I know how these things work." He shifted the small, black box around to his back and clipped it on his waistband, making sure to hide the cord on the inside of his jacket so the microphone was barely visible. "This on?" he asked, tapping the foam covered receiver to make sure the camera could pick up the sound.

A thumbs-up from the camera man signaled he was good to go.

"Welcome to The Post Game," an aged reporter who tried desperately to look younger by putting on too much makeup, greeted the viewers from his stool to Wildwing's right. His neatly cut black suit was tailored to his trim figure, the pale peach tie providing a bright contrast to the white shirt. "I'm Scott Oake."

"And I'm Kelly Hrudy," the pinstripe suited, much younger reporter to the goalie's left continued. His perfectly styled brown hair fell neatly into place, giving him an air of calm superiority. While his white shirt boasted fine blue lines to match the striping of his suit, his navy blue tie was sprinkled with fine, white spots. Both reporters sported the wraparound headset with an earpiece and built-in microphone that the technician had tried to fit to Wildwing.

"Pleased to be joined now by the Mighty Ducks team captain and goalie, Wildwing, who is hoping to lead his team into the playoffs," Scott continued. "We'll be talking about the pressure that goes along with that in a moment. But first, tonight's game. Uh. Where did it go wrong?"

"We obviously had a good start, but they have a lot of power out there. You've got to be aware on the ice at all times. We gave them a chance and they capitalized on it."

"It seems like you lost a lot of energy after they scored the third goal," Kelly took up the interview. "After that, it seemed like they smelled blood. Do you see it the same way?"

Wildwing paused in thought, trying to come up with the best answer. He really hated these kinds of interviews; the team should be heading out to search for Dragaunus, but he was stuck going over their failures in front of the world.

"We knew they came off a back to back win and we thought our energy was better than theirs, but-"

"Flashblade! You're dead! Dead! You hear me!" Mallory's enraged cry echoed throughout the concrete hallways.

Wildwing visibly cringed and glanced around, obviously worried that he was the one in trouble.

"Uh-oh," Kelly somehow managed a shocked and serious expression at the same time. "Sounds like your team isn't too happy about that last minute goal you let through."

Nosedive suddenly came barreling past, sliding on the smooth concrete floor in his sock feet. Grabbing onto Wildwing, he managed to come to a stop, almost pulling the goalie off his seat.

"You're welcome, bro," Nosedive laughed and patted his brother's shoulder before turning to run off again, slipping and sliding the whole way.

"Uh..." Wildwing watched Nosedive's rapidly retreating form before turning back towards the camera and shrugging slightly.

"Well, I guess we know which Flashblade is in trouble," Scott laughed. "Any idea what he did?"

"Knowing Nosedive, it could be anything." He threw another glance over his shoulder and discovered that the speedy sibling had quickly vanished.

"Where is he?" Mallory demanded, angrily following her prey.

"Don't look at me," Wildwing lifted his hands wide, palms up. Nosedive may deserve whatever he had coming, but it was always more entertaining to watch Mallory hunt for him than hand him over.

Kelly grinned and slightly nodded backwards, giving Mallory a silent direction. She eagerly took the hint and bolted down the hall, hoping to catch up to her much faster teammate. She just might have a chance, considering he was sock footed and she had taken a moment to put her boots on.

"I think I'd better go find out what happened," Wildwing said as he slid off the chair. If he could count on Nosedive for anything, it was for his excellent timing. This interview was something he was dieing to get out of and Nosedive had provided the perfect excuse.

"Sounds like a good idea!" Scott agreed as he too slid off his stool and waved at the camera to follow him.

Great. So he wasn't going to get out of it after all. Why did Phil have to give the press the okay to enter their dressing room after games? He'd have to have another discussion with his manager about that. Maybe he could bribe some privacy out of the portly human with a coffee cake...

Wildwing held the door open for Scott to grab on his way in. Entering the dressing room, he found Duke doubled over in laughter, Grin heading towards the showers, and Tanya removing something from Mallory's player stall.

"What'd he do?" He purposely stepped in front of the camera, blocking the shot.

"He fixed Mallory's problem, that's what he did!" Duke gasped out around his amusement.

Tanya held up Mallory's newly modified shoulder pads with a half hidden smile. The white chest protector had been removed and replaced with Mallory's lavender armor. Her breastplate wasn't nearly as strong as Wildwing's or Nosedive's, but it was lighter and more flexible. Considering it only covered the upper portion of her ribcage, it wouldn't suffice for full protection in a hockey game.

Wildwing tried to suppress his smile, but failed miserably. Shaking his head, he looked towards the two reporters and camera crew.

"Do you know of any equipment manufacturers who might take a custom order?"

0000

Wildwing lay back on the soft sheets of his bunk, listening to Nosedive's quiet breathing. Yet again, his brother was fast asleep and he was the one wide awake. It just didn't seem fair at times, that Nosedive could instantly fall asleep and he was the one who dreaded the dreams. Then again, they both had nightmares. Maybe they just weren't as bad for his little brother. They certainly weren't as frequent.

Thinking about sleep wasn't getting him any closer to it. He was too physically exhausted from the day's events to even think about going up to the rink and skating again. Stretching didn't sound appealing. He knew better than to try putting on headphones and drifting off to music; that was just begging for a quick trip to the afterlife with the way he tossed and turned in his sleep.

Frustrated, he shifted onto his side and faced the wall, hoping to get more comfortable. Soft light peeking out from under the bathroom door illuminated the outline of books, his alarm, and a very special puck resting on the inset shelf next to his bed. The lime green of the journal cover Duke had given him looked drab and olive in the dim lighting. He hadn't read whatever it was Duke had put in the envelope yet.

Curiosity finally getting the better of him, Wildwing turned on the small light attached to his headboard and reached for the journal. Pounding the sides of his pillow slightly to fluff it up, he propped the cushion against the metal support and leaned back. He pulled the hardbound gift from his shelf and bent his knees, resting the book on his legs after removing the envelope bearing his name.

Trying to be quiet so as not to waken his sleeping sibling, he carefully slipped a thumb under the sealed flap and slowly tore it open along the top. Three neatly folded pages were inside. The sound of paper softly snapping and crinkling as it was unfolded echoed throughout the once silent room. Even the rustling of his fingers against the copy paper was much louder than it should have been.

"Wing..." Nosedive quietly complained. "Turr et off," he slurred. The lump that was his brother shifted above him, making the mattress creak slightly.

"Sorry." It sure seemed like he was doing an awful lot of apologizing today. "Hang on," he whispered.

Leaning over, he reached under the bed and pulled out a heavy blanket. Nosedive teased him for hiding things under the bed, but that really was the best home for this particular piece of cloth. He quickly tucked the hunter green fleece between the mattress and frame above his head, creating a makeshift tent and blocking the light from the rest of the room. The blanket wasn't large enough to encase the entire bottom bunk; besides, he didn't feel like moving that much. He just tucked it in enough that it stretched from behind his head, around the side, and across his thighs, creating a very small blanket cave. He did this more often than he cared to admit. Neither Flashblade liked sleeping in a completely dark room; but, more light than what was allowed through the slightly cracked bathroom door usually woke Nosedive up.

Leaning back against his pillow again, he reached for where the letter from Duke should have been. Stupid paper must have gotten lost somewhere in the blankets. He looked on top of the pale yellow sheets and didn't see the paper; lifting the lightweight cloth, he was again disappointed to find a distinct lack of parchment.

"Go asleep." This time, Nosedive sounded more awake and annoyed.

Wildwing froze, hoping his lack of movement would be mistaken for slumber. He listened for several moments as Nosedive's breathing again deepened and evened out. Hoping the younger Flashblade was resting soundly, he began searching for the pesky paper once more. A muffled thump came from the wall side of the bed as he leaned towards the room to see if the letter had fallen on the floor. Checking where the noise had come from, he finally found the wayward document wedged between the mattress and wall, along with the journal.

Trying his hardest not to move too much and remain quiet, Wildwing again unfolded the papers, cringing at every little rustling crack handling the document caused. A smaller piece of powder blue stationary about twice the size of an index card was folded within the three larger pieces of copy paper. He read the note first.

_Wildwing,_

_Like I said last night, I'm willing to listen if you need someone to talk to. If you don't want to talk, that's fine. Maybe writing will help. _

_Here's some information I found online. Hope something here works for you._

_Your friend,_

_Duke_

Wildwing smiled slightly at the short note and read it a second time. Duke never was one for dancing around a subject. At first, he thought the note's closing was a little strange, but decided he liked it. Your friend. Yes, Duke was his friend as well as teammate; sometimes, he needed those small reminders. He folded the note in half and put it in the journal's cover before taking a closer look at what else was in the envelope.

The other three pages were printouts from the internet and detailed many ways of dealing with extreme nightmares. One suggestion was to write out the worst memory every night before going to bed and finishing it out with affirmations that he would not have a nightmare, that he was a survivor, and that he held the power. Somehow, that didn't seem very effective. Wouldn't writing and thinking about his worst experiences just before sleep guarantee bad dreams? Besides, he didn't feel much like a survivor. He had endured what happened and his one attempt at escape had ended more disastrously than anyone could have predicted. When freedom finally came, it was a gift from a friend, not something he had worked towards and earned. Dismissing that suggestion, he turned to the next paper.

Anthropomorphizing Nightmares. Now that sounded strange. This website printout suggested he give his nightmares a persona, like a drill sergeant, and make friends with it. First off, he'd have to decide what kind of persona his nightmares had. No way did he want to think about them that much. Secondly, he didn't exactly want to create a second personality to talk to in his mind. That sounded way too much like inviting schizophrenia; he was close enough to crazy as it was without pushing himself over the line. Absolutely not.

The third paper had suggestions he liked better, but still didn't think would help. This technique described how to place oneself in a secure dream space through some sort of self hypnosis. After entering that safe space, he was supposed to write out the nightmare as if it were a story happening to someone else and change the end. The new ending could be something more positive, completely different, or generally resolve a situation that might not have been fully closed. He was then supposed to act out the new version of the dream and write down the feelings. Yeah, right. Even Nosedive would question his sanity if he walked in on Wildwing acting out the worst time of their lives. No way was that going to happen.

Wildwing sighed quietly and glared at the three papers spread out around him. He felt bad for all the time Duke must have put into searching out this useless information. And then Duke had actually gone out and bought the journals in hopes that they would help. Well, the thief's heart had been in the right place. It seemed like a waste to put the journal up and never use it. Maybe he could write good memories in it instead. Liking that idea, he regathered the scattered papers and quietly tucked them back into their envelope. Space on his shelf was getting scarce; the envelope was laid across the top of some books. He'd find somewhere more permanent for it later.

Seeking out a pen, his fingers brushed the metal of his slave bracelet. The alloyed cuff was hidden behind the small stack of books that his alarm clock sat on. Removing the bracer allowed him to find the pen that had fallen behind it.

Wildwing again propped the journal against his bent legs and lay the pen below it. For now, he was more interested in the slave bracelet and the memories it carried. Despite the rough treatment, the golden alloy shone brightly in the light, almost as if it had been polished. An imprint of a soaring raptor on the top had marked him as a saurian slave. 458726 was inset under the icon; for fifteen months, he was reduced to a number. If his slave bracelet had held only those two marks, he probably would have left it behind like Nosedive said he should. It was the digits that had been engraved below his slave number and information uploaded to the cuff's small memory that had prompted him to save it, even if the data was most likely gone forever. 15.625. That was one number he would never forget. If he could find the duck that had added it to his slave bracelet, he'd strangle him with his bare hands.

Shaking the hatred and disgust from his mind, he realized his left hand was subconsciously prodding a small lump on his right arm. The rice sized nodule lay in the divot between deltoid and triceps. He growled softly to himself, instantly regretting the vocalization as Nosedive shifted again.

Wildwing leaned his head back against the pillow cushioned headboard and closed his eyes for a moment, focusing his mind on a more pleasant train of thought. Canard had been the one to remove the hated object. Now that had been a good day.

Satisfied that he had something good to write down, the sleepless duck moved his slave bracelet to the side and picked up the journal and pen. He began writing, not stopping to think about a cohesive outline or planning what he would write. He just wanted to get the thoughts out, to recall something good.

_I remember the day Canard pulled us from the slave line_, he wrote. _We were being moved from our old camp to a new one. I don't know how he found us, but he did, and I'm glad. Who would have thought my childhood friend would be the one to rescue us from our worst nightmare?_

_I'll never forget his words to us when he pulled The Mask from his bag._

_"I found it, Wildwing. In an ancient tomb in the mountains they call Twin Beaks. The Mask. Drake DuCaine's Mask."_

_I still can't believe he held The Mask for only a month before passing it off to me._

His pen stilled as memories of Canard being pulled from his grasp threatened to take over. Squeezing his eyes shut, he took a deep breath and pushed the dark thoughts away. He was writing something good, not reinforcing the bad.

_After showing us The Mask and telling us his plan to take Dragaunus down, he pulled out what I thought was a gray flashlight from his bag. It was a localized EMP one of the resistance techs had built for him. He turned it on and killed the tracking devices in our slave bracelets. Now, we could go to his base and not lead the drones straight there._

_It was at the base that the slave bracelets were finally cut off. They had to slide a piece of osmium between our wrists and the metal before using a small laser to cut through it. Whatever the saurians used to weld it on was strong, but the resistance was smarter. Those lizards thought we could never get them off. They were wrong._

_Canard looked good that day. I don't know if it's because he had joined the military or if it was his armor, but he seemed bigger than I remembered. He had such a sense of purpose about him that I'd never noticed before. _

Shrugging slightly, the thoughtful avian stared off into space, remembering his fallen friend. His eyes were finally beginning to feel heavy. Maybe now, he could sleep. Sticking the pen in the journal, he closed the cover and looked at his shelf, trying to figure out the best way to fit it back on there. He was going to have to seriously reconsider what he stored on that ledge. Maybe some of the books could go on one of the trophy shelves above the couch. Hiding the slave bracelet behind the stacked books once more, he moved the hockey puck Grin had handed him earlier and put the journal on top of his alarm clock. No, that wouldn't work; he'd need to reach the button in the morning to turn the darned thing off. Taking the pen out from the journal, he moved the empty tome under the clock and set the pen next to it. Now for the puck...

He gazed at the puck once more, memories tickling his synapses as he held the solid weight. Once again, Canard's barely heard voice floated through his mind. _I've got your back, Buddy._

No, now was not the time for sleep. Grin had told him to come find him when he was ready. Wildwing had to know how Grin had found this, where it came from. He slipped the precious puck into his plaid pajama pants pocket and turned off his headboard light. After waiting a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he tugged down the blanket he'd surrounded himself with. Fresh, cool air rushed in to replace the stuffy atmosphere the tenting had created. The goalie folded his blanket by feel and tossed it towards the foot of the bed.

Standing, he quietly made his way to the door and punched in the code to open it. The door didn't budge. He tried again, with the same result. Trying another code didn't work either. When had Nosedive changed it? That little punk hadn't been kidding when he said he'd be sneakier about it tonight!

He hated to do it, but he was going to have to wake up Nosedive to get out. There was no way he was going to chicken out on talking to Grin right now. Courage could be a funny thing; it was present now and might not be in the morning. It was best to act while he felt strong enough to actually say something.

Walking back to the bunk beds, he poked Nosedive's shoulder.

"Dive, get up."

The slumbering teen shifted and moaned, but didn't waken.

"Come on, Dive. I need you to let me out."

"Go sleep," he mumbled in reply.

"Please? Just open the door."

Yawning, the blond finally sat up and looked at his brother.

"You're sleepwalking. Go back to bed."

"I'm not sleepwalking. I'd have to be asleep to be sleepwalking."

"Yes you are, now get back to bed."

Great. How was he supposed to convince Nosedive that he wasn't asleep?

"Please?" he tried again.

The darkness did little to hide the sleepy annoyance on his sibling's face. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he grinned deviously.

"So," Nosedive started. "Who'd you rather do, Tanya or Mallory?"

"What? I'm not answering that!"

"Guess you really aren't asleep. You always answer my questions when you're sleepwalking."

"What kinds of questions?" He was leery about the information his brother might have gotten out of him when he was sleeping. Considering nothing had been said or done to blackmail him, hopefully he hadn't revealed anything too bad.

"Oh, you know. Stuff like who you'd rather ask out on a date or what your favorite food is. The answers are usually pretty hilarious."

"I thought people who talked in their sleep always told the truth." He couldn't remember where he'd heard that, but it was floating around in his mind from somewhere.

"Not a chance! When I asked you if Tanya or Mallory was the better looking one last week, you said Marilyn Monroe. Two nights ago, you told me that hockey pucks tasted like gummy worms. And last month, you gave me a recipe for banana and turnip cookies."

Wildwing stared at his brother, not quite sure if he was telling the truth or not. Marilyn Monroe was better looking that either Mallory or Tanya? Yeah, he really wasn't in his right mind if he was saying that humans were more attractive than ducks. And who would eat banana turnip cookies?

"Just, open the door. Will you?"

"Fine," Nosedive yawned again and climbed down. "But you're on your own for not escaping tonight."

"I'll just have to tie myself to the bed," he sadly joked, hanging his head.

"Yeah, right." Nosedive opened the door. "2, 5, 5, 5."

"Thanks. Night, Dive."

The only response was a halfhearted wave as the blond shuffled back to bed.

0000

Wildwing paused outside Grin's door. What was he doing here? It was late. Grin was probably asleep. That guy could sleep like a rock; nothing short of a nuclear explosion could get him up unless he was ready.

The confused drake turned to go back to his room and then wheeled around to face the door once more. Before his brain could take over again, he raised his hand and knocked twice. After a moment of silence, he started to doubt if Grin was awake. Just before he could turn to leave again, the door opened.

"Good evening," the massive drake greeted as he stood in the entryway.

"Hey." Wildwing was suddenly very self conscious. "Um, sorry. It's late. I probably shouldn't have bothered you." His courage fled and Wildwing wanted nothing more than to curl up in his bunk and hide.

"I was awake. Come in?" Grin stepped aside and motioned his team captain in.

Unexpectedly nervous, Wildwing accepted the invitation. He was startled to see how empty his teammate's bunk was. There was what looked like a mattress on the floor in one corner, a low chest of drawers with some rocks and candles on it, and a very short table surrounded by cushions. The only illumination came from the candles on the chest of drawers and another cluster of votives in the center of the table. Soft, woven mats covered the floor; the walls were completely bare. Grin's boots rested on a large, black tray next to the door.

Grin moved to one of the cushions and took a seat, motioning for his visitor to do the same. A dark violet, ceramic teapot sat on a wire rack above glowing, red coals. Two small cups with no handles rested next to the tea pot.

Taking his cue from Grin, the goalie chose a cushion and sat directly across from his host.

"Were you expecting somebody?" Wildwing asked, nodding towards the second cup.

"You." The reply was simple and without any hidden expectations. The gray duck carefully laid his hand on the outside of the teapot. Satisfied with the temperature, he lifted it from the brazier and set it on a bamboo mat. He removed the lid and added a slightly floral scented scoop of tea to the water.

"Okay..." Wildwing was unsure of how to respond to that. How could Grin have known he would come at all, much less tonight?

"Your aura has always been cloud by doubt," Grin's voice was calm and unaccusing. "Last night, I could sense a troubled spirit roaming the halls."

Grin had known about his sleepwalking? He'd thought Duke was the only one up, besides himself and Nosedive. Did his team never sleep?

Wildwing carefully studied Grin, unsure of what he wanted to say. The massive drake knelt serenely on his cushion, giving Wildwing his full attention. His hands rested on his thighs, his gaze kind.

"When I was in the military, I met many ducks who had been through terrible experiences. Some of them were willing to talk about it and work it out. Others preferred to bury the pain for a long time before giving it up. If you want to share whatever burdens you carry, I can help. If you simply want some tea, I have plenty."

"Tea sounds good." The white drake shifted the pillow he was sitting on to a more comfortable position. It was strange, sitting on the floor. He wasn't quite sure what to do with his legs. He'd initially tried kneeling like Grin, but his legs began cramping. Sitting cross legged seemed to work best for now, even if it did put him a little further from the table.

A simple nod was all the response given as they waited for the tea to steep.

Growing uncomfortable with the silence, Wildwing finally remembered the puck in his pocket. Removing it, he set it on the table.

"Where did you get this?"

A small smile tugged at the corner of Grin's beak as he picked up the puck and studied it once more, lightly brushing the design with his thumb.

"I found it on the Aerowing this morning. Does it have special meaning to you?"

"Yeah. It was Canard's. How'd you know to give it to me? I mean, out of the whole team, why would you give something you randomly found while repairing the Aerowing to me?"

"Because it was meant for you." The black disk was returned to the table surface and pushed back towards Wildwing.

The goalie once more picked up the puck and studied it, remembering his friend.

"Canard had about a dozen of these. He always joked that it seemed kind of rude to use the pucks and destroy a gift, but Cassie really wanted him to use them."

"Cassie?"

"She was one of our classmates. Had a huge crush on Canard, " he smiled fondly. "She'd follow him around the school hallways, trying to get his attention. He'd pretend to be annoyed by her, but I knew he liked it. She was always drawing. I guess she got it in her head one day that Canard needed some new pucks with his own logo on them. They were a birthday gift when we were sophomores. I thought we had either lost or worn them all out."

Grin's silence continued as he listened to Wildwing talk. When the leader paused, he poured a small serving of steaming tea into each cup and set one in front of Wildwing. He gently held the small cup, savoring the warmth. Delicate wafts of floral steam danced above the golden fluid.

Wildwing accepted the tea and took a small sip, enjoying the light flavor. The earthy taste was sweet and honey-like with a slightly mint essence.

"Not bad. What kind of tea is this?"

"A mixture of chamomile and catnip. I find it to be very soothing. How long have you known Canard?"

"His family moved in down the street when I was eight. We pretty much grew up together. My mom used to joke that he was her third son because he practically lived with us."

"Your mother sounds like a kind soul."

"She was." He focused on the pellucid liquid, fascinated by the small bits of leaf that lay on the cup's bottom. "Mom was a librarian. She got a job after Nosedive started first grade to help pay the bills. If she had to work when we got out of school, we'd stay at the library with her and do our homework before heading out to play street hockey in the parking lot. Mom's probably the reason Nosedive is so smart. She was always giving us books to read and telling us some pretty wild stories."

"Legends of Drake DuCaine?" Noticing the cups were nearly empty, Grin refilled them.

"No; those came from Dad. Of course, you could never believe half of what he said."

"Why not?"

"Well, Mom was always playing jokes on Dad and the only way he could get back at her was to make up the craziest stories possible. You should have seen the time he tried to explain to us why there was a treasure chest in the refrigerator! He said he'd found it at a fire above a _lalli_ den and brought it home. The only place the _lalli_ wouldn't think to look would be the refrigerator because they never used them and wouldn't know what one was," he laughed fondly. "He had us helping guard his special treasure for a week. We were convinced that _lalli_ were real. Nosedive still says he saw one looking in the window one night, searching for his stolen treasure. Mom made him come clean after that incident. Turns out, that treasure was his lunchbox. She had decided to make sure none of the other firefighters would take his lunch by accident again and had decorated it."

Grin's deep, rumbling laugh echoed Wildwing's own. _Lalli_ were supposed to be Puckworld ice spirits who hid under peoples houses. If treated well, they would keep the home's steps free of snow and ice; however, offending a _lalli_ could result in nasty accidents.

"Sometimes," Wildwing continued, "He'd fall for one of her pranks and chase her around the house. After catching her, he'd say that he never should have married someone smarter and she'd laugh and say she shouldn't have married someone stronger." He smiled sadly; he would probably never see his parents lovingly teasing each other again. Stars, he didn't even know if his parents were alive.

"Hm." Taking another drink of tea, he met the attentive gaze of his friend. "You're way too good at this, you know?"

"Good at what?"

"Getting me to talk. I haven't spoken about my parents to anyone other than Nosedive since the invasion. Even then, we barely talk about them."

"Canard chose me for the team for more than just my strength. He had ulterior motives for picking each one of us, even if the rest don't know it yet."

"I guess he picked you to be an interrogator?" He was joking and they both knew it, but Wildwing immediately regretted insinuating Grin could possibly torture someone for information.

"No, because of my profession," the faux pas was waved off. "In today's interview, I told you I am a chaplain. When Canard finally decided to have me join the team, he asked me to look out for you and Nosedive and help if you needed it."

"Canard always was a good judge of character."

"You were picked for your leadership skills."

Frowning, Wildwing considered this new bit of information. Before the mask was handed off to him, he'd never considered himself a leader. Hell, he'd always doubted his role until a few days ago. Nobody else could hold his team together; that was his job and his alone.

"And here I thought I was the bait. I wonder why he picked Tanya and Mallory. Duke's kind of obvious; he's helped us out on more than one occasion with getting information or breaking in somewhere."

"He's also a lot wiser than most give him credit for. As for Tanya and Mallory, they will have to tell you themselves."

"But you know, don't you?"

"Yes. It's not my place to reveal something they may not yet want to discuss."

"I can respect that. It's too bad he didn't really want Nosedive along. I wish Canard could see how he's grown and what he does for the team." The memory of his friend telling Nosedive to get lost after showing them the mask still made his blood boil. How could he expect Wildwing to join the team and leave his only family behind?

"Sometimes, we are too close to someone to truly judge their worth. We often don't recognize that value until it is too late."

"You've got that right," he snorted.

Silence fell upon the two drakes once more. The small amount of remaining tea had cooled. Two candles had burned out, indicating how much time had passed.

Wildwing didn't know how to continue and Grin remained quiet as well. Finally deciding he was tired and could sleep soundly, the leader stumbled to his feet.

"I guess I should get back to bed," Wildwing said as he gingerly walked towards the door, one foot asleep. "Thanks for the tea and conversation."

"Any time you wish to talk, my door is always open to you." The massive defensedrake placed his palms together and bowed. "Good night, Wildwing."

"Night, Grin."

It might have been the tea, or maybe it was the conversation, but Wildwing fell into the first truly restful sleep he had enjoyed in over a month.

* * *

**End AN:** Catnip tea is awesome. While it can make kitties go crazy, it has the opposite effect on humans. It's even been known to be effective for calming people with ADD. Since chamomile tea is a soothing brew, I figured adding a pinch of catnip would only heighten the effect.


	5. Straightening Out

Fingers flying over the keyboard, Tanya forgot the world around her. Only the code flowing from her swiftly moving phalanges was important. It consumed her entire being, blocking out any other sound or distraction. This, this was life: the challenge of building, creating, solving. Few things short of a Drake One alarm could disrupt her creative flow once she entered it.

The program she was writing was finally nearing completion. Her Omnitool stored a wealth of information from past blueprints and designs to data from Puckworld. Unfortunately, the format she had stored it in wasn't readable by Earth's technology. When she had helped design and build their secret base, it had all been from memory or new designs. Creating Drake One had given her hope that she could once again access the data stored on her Omnitool. Unfortunately, that required extensive programming. She had to create a completely new language to translate the data from VNE to DOS. If only this primitive Earth technology were further advanced; while there were many variations on operating systems, it all came down to DOS. It had only taken a few hours of tinkering with the operating system at Lectric Land to fully figure it out. VNE was a much more complicated language, requiring more memory and processing power than what normal terran computers possessed. It was a good thing Drake One hadn't been built by earthlings.

Adding the last few touches to her program, she smiled and leaned back. Now, to test it. She couldn't risk taking the data directly from her Omnitool. If the program had a glitch in it, she might corrupt and loose everything. No, she had to test it on something far less valuable first. Luckily, the Aerowing was grounded and didn't need its onboard computer for a few more days. If she corrupted that, well, she'd just have to make a new one.

Holding her breath, the genius connected Puckworld technology to Earth components, praying that it would work. After a moments delay, Drake One recognized the new equipment and began to run through the data, downloading it.

A very satisfied grin spread across her beak. Of course her program worked. She hadn't spent the past three months writing and refining it to fail. Satisfied that her hard work had paid off, she disconnected the Aerowing's brain and set it aside. She could re-install it later today when they straightened out the frame.

Data storage was one of the many problems she'd run into. While the petabyte of data her Omnitool held was considered small by Puckworld standards, Earth was still working on developing enough storage for a terabyte. It had taken careful planning and building most components from scratch, but she had ensured her super computer could store close to an exabyte. Nothing else on the planet had as much processing power or memory as her electronic baby.

Slightly reluctant to remove her ubiquitous gadget, she undid the hook that kept the Omnitool latched onto her wrist. Connecting it to Drake One, she leaned back, wings folded across her chest, and watched as data flashed by. Each image remained on the screen for a split second before being replaced by the next. Her program smoothly and efficiently copied the data and directed it into the appropriate new folders.

Sighing, she realized she should have brought a book to read. While her supercomputer's processing power and speed were unparalleled, it did take time to transfer that much data. Leaving such sensitive information unguarded was not an option. The Resistance had trusted her with top secret plans and data; she had to stay here until it had transferred and was properly re-encrypted. Not that she was worried about anyone else on the team doing something with the information; it was more a case of principle. Well, that and a little bit of fear that Nosedive might accidentally delete something or interrupt the process. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Hey, Tanya!" Speak of the devil. "What ya working on?" The blond teen climbed the ladder leading to Drake One and stood behind her chair, resting a hand on the cushioned back.

"Finally finished a program to read the data on my Omnitool."

"Cool. I was hoping to play some Space Zombies. How long do you think it'll take?"

"Hours," she exaggerated. "Go play your game somewhere else." Drake One was _hers_. Sure, she was nice enough to let the others use it; but, there were times she didn't want to hand over control of her creation. This was one of them.

"Aw, Taunny, you don't have to be sore about it. The game's not that bad!"

She snorted in derision, ignoring him and continuing to watch files fly by.

"Well, guess I'll see ya later then. Oh, Wing said to let you know that Phil's getting us dinner tonight, so you're off the hook."

"Why? What's he want?" Phil never bought anything for them without an ulterior motive.

"Dunno." Nosedive shrugged. "Does it matter? Wing suggested we have him pick up some Roy's Hawaiian."

Tanya couldn't help but chuckle at that. Roy's Hawaiian Fusion was the most expensive restaurant in town. It was also one of the most delicious. Their lobster pot stickers was one of her favorite foods on the planet.

"Sounds good to me. Hey, could you, maybe, grab a, uh, book from my lab? This is going to take a while and I don't want to, you know, leave it alone."

"Sure thing! Which one?"

"Any book; doesn't matter." Honestly, she had more books in there than she had time to read. Despite her freakishly rapid reading ability, she accumulated material faster than she could work through it. Even if he brought her one that she'd been through before, a second time through always provided new information.

The technologically gifted duck returned to her files. Going through what had already been transferred was extremely tempting; but, she resisted. There wouldn't be any problems with looking at the newly stored data on Drake One, but she often jumped from one subject to the next until she found something that held her interest. There were at least a couple dozen projects in various stages of completion and she didn't want to get focused on one only to find that all of the information wasn't yet available.

She sighed in boredom. What was taking him so long? All of the books were kept on a bookcase near the door. If he was messing with her chemistry equipment again-

"Here ya go!" Nosedive's chipper voice echoed throughout the room. He sounded far too pleased with himself, like a duckling who had just scored his first game-winning goal. That wide smile across his face bespoke trouble. One book was held out in his left hand; the right was concealed behind his back. "I couldn't figure out which you'd like better, Immunobiology and Pathogenesis of Persistent Virus Infections..." He made a face at the title as he read it, clearly conveying his opinion of how boring the book must be. The slightly contemptuous look was quickly replaced with a far more mischievous one as his right hand came out from behind his back to present a much smaller option. "Or, Arrows of the Queen."

Oh crud. She'd had one of her fantasy novels in the lab? What was she thinking! Those were supposed to stay in her room, safe and sound, where nobody could find them. Even geniuses needed to read something relaxing and non-educational now and then. Mercedes Lackey provided the perfect supply of mind mush: good fantasy adventures with interesting characters and plots, but not too much of the romance stuff. Still, she didn't want the team to know about her love of fantasy and sci-fi books; it was embarrassing.

"Give me those," she could feel the fine feathers on her face fluff out a little in embarrassment as she snatched both books from his hands.

"Tanya, I never took you for the romance novel kind," Nosedive laughed loudly.

"It's not romance," she defended herself as she set the larger tome on the keyboard in front of her. "It's fantasy. There's a big difference."

"Whatever you say, girly-girl." He continued to stand there, smiling at her.

"Weren't you going to go play some video game?" Her back was to him as she looked for a good place to hide her novel. She didn't want to put it on the floor and there were no drawers or good hiding spots readily available. Giving up, she stuck the small book behind her and leaned back on it, sandwiching it between herself and the high-backed chair.

A quick glance at the screen showed the transfer had slowed down. Each image remained on screen for a few seconds before vanishing into its designated folder and being replaced with the next. A picture of deceased ducks neatly lined up next to each other at one of the slave camps was replaced by a patient file, complete with victim photo and a description of the virus that had killed him. Tanya shuddered at the images, feeling a potent mixture of sorrow and rage.

Realizing her question to Nosedive had never been answered, she glanced over her shoulder. He still stood there, gaze transfixed on the display, trembling slightly. His hands were in tight fists.

"Nosedive?" Concern shaded her voice. "Are you okay?"

A slight gasp was her only answer. Standing, she waved a hand in front of his face. No response. Snapping her fingers near his ear didn't do anything either. Growing more worried, she grabbed his arm and shook him a little.

"Nosedive! Snap out of it." This was not normal at all for him. Was he having some kind of seizure? Afraid the flashing images on the screen might have triggered whatever this was, she quickly turned off the monitor.

"Can you hear me?" She carefully tilted his head down slightly to face her and studied his pupils. He didn't look like he was seizing...

Finally, his eyes started focusing on her and his breathing deepened. A frown replaced the vacant expression.

"Tanya? Where's Wing?" The trembling in his voice didn't go unnoticed.

"I dunno. Are you okay?" She gently guided him to her chair. "Sit down. Do you know what today is?"

"I'm fine," he tried to brush off the episode. "It's Wednesday. What? Did you forget what day it is?" Despite the teasing nature of the question, his tone was one of annoyance.

"No. I'm just checking to see if you had a seizure."

"It was nothing." He tried standing, but was quickly pushed back down.

"That was not nothing. You spaced out for almost a minute." Stupid glasses. She pushed them up again as they slid down her beak a little. "We need to get to the infirmary so I can do a full scan. You didn't get hit in the head at last night's game, did you?"

Nosedive sighed and leaned forward, elbows resting on knees. Long, blond hair fell forward, hiding his face. After a moment, he turned his head slightly and looked up at her. His playful demeanor fell to the floor like a discarded cloak. She was taken aback by the hurt, hatred, and accusation his gaze held.

"Why do you have pictures of Hyla?" his voice was flat, trying to hide something.

Oh, puck. She'd known the brothers had been pulled from the slave lines, but nothing beyond that. Could he have actually been _in_ Hyla? All thoughts of the troubling space out she'd just witnessed fled from her mind.

"You were there, weren't you?" Surely not. He was alive and well, as was Wildwing. She couldn't help it; her mind ran the numbers before she could derail that particular train of thought. The chances of them both surviving if they'd been there were astronomical.

"Why do you have those pictures?" he asked again, more firmly. He straightened, crossing his arms and staring straight at her, demanding an answer.

This was one of those top secret projects she'd intended to encrypt. She shouldn't be talking about it, but he had already seen the images. Maybe, just maybe he might have information that would help.

"I, uh, was on a team researching Virus 15.625. From what we could tell, it was created in a lab. It was released into Hyla and Anole on purpose. We were trying to find the index case so we could track the mutations and develop a vacci- vacc- cure."

Tanya leaned back on the computer, carefully studying her teammate. Nosedive, normally full of energy and laughter, was now so serious it scared her. She'd never seen a duck with such fear and anguish hidden behind their eyes.

"Nosedive-" She paused, debating if she should continue or not. Before she could stop herself, she did. "What happened?" Damn that need to know, to figure out everything. One of these days, it would get her into serious trouble; puck, it could have just happened.

Nosedive sighed again and studied the floor. After a moment, he spoke once more, eyes never leaving the ground. His voice was quiet and unwavering, all traces of emotion gone.

"The drones took twelve ducks from our camp. A week later, three came back. They were all sick. Nobody knew what to do for them, or how contagious it was. Two of the ducks that were taken died a couple days later." He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. "We lost four more the next day. By the end of the week, I lost count how many died. All I know is, there were hundreds of other ducks in the same compound. By the time the hunter drones started moving us to another camp, there were only eighty."

The tech stared at him, mouth slightly open in shock. She wanted to say something to comfort him, hug him, do anything to show him that he wasn't alone; but, she couldn't bring herself to move. His demeanor precluded any physical contact.

"Nosedive, I..." she drifted off, unsure what she wanted to say.

He stood and looked her in the eye, daring her to object to what he was about to say.

"If you need ID's, I might be able to help with some. But, Tanya, you can _never_ let Wildwing know you have this information or let him see those pictures."

"Okay," she nodded, a little shocked that Nosedive would demand she keep information from her team captain. It's not like she would have told him about this anyway; it was supposed to stay classified. Still, Nosedive needed the assurance and she was more than willing to give it to him.

"I'll help you later," he promised, looking towards the door leading to the elevator. "I'm going to Captain Comics." With that, he brushed past her and walked out.

Tanya watched his retreating back for a moment, stunned by the information she had just learned and the very different personality Nosedive had displayed. After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she returned to her seat at the super computer. Arrows of the Queen lay on the chair, the cover and several pages crumpled from where Nosedive had sat on it. Tossing the damaged book on the floor, she turned on the monitor. In a matter of seconds, she had pulled up the newly transferred information on Virus 15.625 and began encrypting it. It would take someone beyond her level of genius to be able to find where the files were hidden and decode them by the time she was done with them.

0000

"Hey, baby brother. Where you going?" Wildwing was again in the dressing room, gearing up for a solo-practice session. He wasn't entirely happy with his performance last night and was determined to work on recovery time and post to post speed.

"Going to Captain Comics. You practicing?"

Wildwing carefully studied his brother. Something wasn't right. He looked shaken up, like he was trying to hide something.

"Yeah. You okay? Something happen?"

Nosedive snorted and shrugged as he continued to the door.

"Hey, I could use some help out there. Want to see if you can knock me over again?" Maybe the promise of some fun on the ice would get his sibling to relax. If that devious glint in Nosedive's eye was any indication, he was right.

"I can get the puck past you any time I want."

"I doubt that. You haven't managed to for a week now."

"You're on." The youth instantly turned around and removed his lightweight, white vest. Most humans wore long sleeves and multiple layers when practicing; Nosedive was more than used to the cold and relished it. Rather than change into pads or other protective gear, he put a weighted vest over his short sleeved, green t-shirt. Bright red weights were velcroed to his skates.

"Putting on the heavy gear today?" Wildwing was curious. Normally, Nosedive used the weights to help build endurance and speed when practicing alone.

"Hey, if you can carry around an extra fifty pounds of padding, I can handle an extra forty. Gotta keep it even, right?"

"Hah! Except I need that extra padding to keep me safe from those rockets you try to kill me with."

"I just feel like it today, okay?" He grabbed his hockey stick and beat Wildwing out of the dressing room.

"Whatever," Wildwing shrugged and grabbed his water bottle from the ledge above his player stall before following. On a second thought, he returned to Nosedive's bench and grabbed his water bottle too. Might as well fill both at the same time.

"I thought I saw Nosedive go by," a deep voice called from the doorway as Wildwing walked past. "You two practicing?"

"Chuck! Hey." The goalie gave his equipment manager a bright smile. "I thought we gave you the day off. There's no group practice today."

"I know," the dark skinned, elderly man smiled and reached out for the water bottles. "But that doesn't mean you birds won't show up at random times to practice anyway. Grin and Tanya have already been out there. Dunno when or if Mallory or Duke are going to show." He turned and yelled over his shoulder "Hey! Mark! Come get these water bottles filled."

"Mark?" He didn't remember anyone by that name who worked for Chuck.

"My grandson."

A young boy came running out of the skate room, his oversized purple windbreaker with the Mighty Ducks logo on it flapping wildly. His curly, black hair was cut close to his head. The gangly youth couldn't be much older than twelve.

"Wildwing," Chuck hugged the boy close with one arm, "I'd like you to meet Mark. He's staying with me for the week."

"Hi, Mark," Wildwing extended a gloved hand.

"Wow. It's great to meet you, Mr. Flashblade!" the youth exclaimed.

The duck couldn't help but laugh at this youth's proper manner mixed with his enthusiasm.

"Just Wildwing will do. You're helping out your grandpa today?"

"Yeah! Oh, he said something about you and Nosedive like your water mixed with something weird. What was it?"

"Come on, Mark," Chuck chided. "If you're going to be an equipment manager one day, you've got to remember what every player likes and doesn't like."

"Coconut water," Wildwing informed. "As a friendly warning, don't touch anything of Mallory's or Duke's."

"He already told me that," the youth smiled, taking the water bottles from his grandfather. "I heard about last night's thing with the shoulder pads."

Wildwing tried not to laugh, he really did. The memory of Nosedive slipping and sliding through the hallways with an irate Mallory hot on his trail was the highlight of his week. Apparently, it was everybody else's highlight too; that Post Game interview had been replayed several times on the morning news and sports channels already.

"Hey, bro!" Nosedive's voice echoed through the hallways. "You coming or what?"

"I like my water mixed about fifty-fifty with coconut water," Wildwing told Mark. "Give Nosedive a little more coconut water than mine; he's got the weights on. You going to be around the whole week or just today?"

"More coconut water for Nosedive. Got it. The whole week, if Grandpa lets me."

"You two going to need anything more than pucks?" Chuck inquired.

"Wing!" Nosedive was beginning to sound a little impatient.

"Hang on!" He rolled his eyes a little to show his indifference to his sibling's demands. "About twenty or thirty pucks would be good. We could probably use some saucer cones too."

"I'll get right on it." Chuck was serious about his job and always provided what was asked for right away. "Have a good practice."

The goalie smiled and raised his goal stick as he turned and jogged towards the rink.

"Bout time you showed up. I was beginning to think Dragaunus got you." Nosedive had clearly already been around the rink a few times.

"Nah, just had a little conversation with Chuck." The goalie stepped onto the ice and glided to his crease. He set his goal blocker, goal stick, and catcher on top of the net before joining in on a light warm up. "He's got his grandson with him today."

"Yeah? Cool." The youth seemed distant and more than a little agitated.

Preferring not to press the issue, Wildwing skated in silence, staying close to his brother. After a couple laps of easy skating, he glanced at his sibling out of the corner of his eye. Nosedive was off in some private world, not paying much attention to what was going on around him. Seizing the opportunity, the white avian shoved his brother into the boards and quickly skated away.

"Wing!" Nosedive easily fell against the glass and landed on the ice. "You're gonna get it!" Laughing, he pushed himself up and gave chase.

"No way, baby brother!" He turned around and skated backwards, taunting the left wing. "Not with all that weight you're carrying!" Quickly flipping around again, he increased the distance between them.

The two drakes flew across the ice, dodging each others attempts to bring the him down. Neither one appeared to be hindered by the extra weight they carried as they swiftly pivoted and dodged their attacking sibling.

"This is how they practice?" Mark's confused voice floated through the rink. "It looks like they're just playing!"

Their evasive game quickly ended when the humans made their appearance. The two Flashblades glided over to the opening between player benches, easily stopping before hitting the boards.

"Sometimes, work and play can be the same thing," Wildwing smiled at the equipment-manager-in-training as he thankfully took the green and orange Gatorade water bottle. Gatorade provided free water bottles to the team in exchange for the publicity of their use during games and practices. None of the ducks actually drank the chemical laden concoction, but they welcomed the free gear; water bottles never lasted long when they received the abuse of a professional sports team's use. A strip of masking tape with their number was taped down the side of the bottle.

"Brought you some plain water too," Chuck said as he set two more bottles without numbers on them on the red ledge. He laid a couple of towels on the barrier between rink and tunnel. "Here's your pucks." The heavy, black puck bag was lifted over the waist high wall and handed to Nosedive.

"Thanks, Chuck-meister," Nosedive grinned as he unzipped the bag and dumped its contents onto the ice.

"And your cones." Six orange saucer cones were tied together with a rope through their center. Wildwing took these and untied the knot before tossing the rope onto the empty player bench.

"That everything you needed?" Mark asked, trying his best to be professional.

"Looks good to me," Wildwing said as the threw the saucer disks frisbee style towards the left goal.

"We'll be back in an hour to see if you need anything else," Chuck assured as he again put his arm around his grandson and turned towards his domain. "Let's leave them to themselves for now."

"Aww, Grandpa! I wanted to watch them practice!"

"Maybe later. I don't think today's a good day for it." Chuck knew when his absence would be more helpful than his presence.

"So, you going to tell me what's got you all worked up?" Wildwing asked as they skated towards the goal.

Nosedive shrugged again and absentmindedly gathered the pucks into a neat pile. After a few moments, he sighed and leaned on his hockey stick.

Wildwing patiently waited, hoping Nosedive would open up. The blond still seemed off. Instead of focusing solely on his brother, he grabbed his gloves and stick from the top of the net and put them on.

Nosedive had apparently decided not to answer the question as he pushed a puck forward, tapped the ice in front of it to stop it's gliding motion, and pulled the stick back for a hard wrist shot. "One," he warned as kevlar met vulcanized rubber.

Reflexively, the goalie slid left and dropped his glove low to catch the puck.

"Three," came the next warning.

Faster than thought, Wildwing raised his goal stick and kept the puck from entering the net above his right shoulder. He quickly regained his footing and glided forward a little to make the net a smaller target.

"Five."

He dropped into a perfect butterfly, closing the gap between his legs and stopping the puck once more. They continued on for several minutes, Nosedive calling out which section of the net he was aiming for and Wildwing moving to block. More pucks were stopped than actually made it through, much to the younger's chagrin. By the time they ran out, the score stood Wildwing: 28, Nosedive: 2.

"Come on, baby bro, I know you can do better than that." The white drake fished out those two pesky pucks that had sailed past him and sent them back towards center ice.

"Just warming up."

"Yeah, right. Ready for some breaks?" Now that they were done with the first round of attempts at scoring, it was time to work on endurance.

"Awwww maaaaaaan," he complained. "I hate those."

Breaks, typically saved as the last exercise in practices, were generally considered the least favorite training method of any hockey player. Players skated hard and fast between two lines on the ice for a set time, rested, and did it again as long as they could. Wildwing usually liked to get the bad stuff out of the way first so the rest of practice could be enjoyed.

"Not goal, goal. Right?" Nosedive was hopeful that it'd be a much shorter distance than that; but, considering their poor performance last night, goal to goal runs were a distinct possibility. "How about blue, blue?"

"Blue, red works for me," Wildwing commented as he skated towards center ice. Looking at the clock, he waited for the second hand to reach the six before taking off, quickly skating from the red line at center ice to the blue line on the left and back again. The scraping of their skates on the ice was easily drowned out by the loud whoosh of quick, sliding stops. Nosedive followed, easily keeping up. When the second hand reached the twelve, they stopped and rested for a minute before doing it again. By the time they had completed twelve runs, both avians were breathing heavily and ready for a much easier exercise.

"Hey, Wing?" Nosedive spoke around his attempts at sucking in air. "What do you do when I have a flashback?"

Now _that_ was a question Wildwing hadn't expected. Honestly, he didn't even really think about what he did when Nosedive spaced out. It was reacting on instinct more than anything.

"Um, I don't know, really. Talk to you, let you know we're safe. Why?"

"I sorta, uh-" He made a face somewhere between embarrassment and disgust. "I kinda had a flashback in front of Tanya."

"Oh." Not good. "What'd she do?" First he goes and punches Duke while sleepwalking, then Nosedive has a flashback in front of Tanya. At this point, it seemed like Mallory was the only one who didn't know about their secret.

"She thought I was having a seizure." He tried to laugh and pass it off as ridiculous.

"Hm." Now that was an interesting thought. Nosedive had never shown any signs of epilepsy or seizures before the invasion. Could it be possible that the stress of their imprisonment had triggered something in his brain? Would Nosedive actually be able to free himself from the waking nightmares with medication? The thought was both hopeful and frightening.

"I told her I was fine, but she didn't believe me."

"And? What'd you do?"

"Just walked out on her and said I was going to Captain Comics." Nosedive pushed the pucks towards the right face off circle before getting into position. "Ready for round two?"

"Bring it." Despite being outwardly calm, the goalie's mind was in a whirlwind. What had triggered that particular flashback? Why did it happen in front of Tanya? How were they going to keep this hidden? Should they continue to hide everything?

A puck sailing past his head and Nosedive's cheer brought Wildwing back to the present moment. He had practice to focus on; this could be dealt with later.

Nosedive continued his favorite exercise: starting from the boards, taking three or four quick steps, and shooting the puck at the net before circling around to do it again. Despite trying different angles and shots at the goal, Wildwing still managed to block a large percentage of pucks sent his way. The two drakes were soon caught up in their practice and left their cares behind.

0000

"Hey, Tanya!" Mallory cheerfully greeted as she entered the ready room. She was about to head up top for a massage with Dr. Boulder and the quickest way to the medical facility was the elevator next to Drake One. Her right knee was really sore from being slammed into the boards last night and she wanted to get it taken care of before it became a problem.

It wasn't unusual to find Tanya working on something, but the team tech seemed particularly focused on whatever this was. She didn't even look up at the sound of the door opening or acknowledge Mallory's greeting.

"Working on something big?" the redhead asked. If she knew one thing about Tanya, it was that she could become too focused on a project. The genius needed to be pulled from her cerebral world on occasion, if only to get her eyes of the screen to avoid eye strain.

"Oh, uh..." Tanya glanced at Mallory before quickly switching screens, hiding what she was working on. "It's nothing, really."

"Nothing, my feathers." Mallory crossed her arms and widened her stance a little. She smiled at Tanya. "If it wasn't anything, you wouldn't be hiding it."

"Just a project that's not finished," Tanya evaded.

Emerald eyes narrowed as Mallory studied the only other female on the team more closely. Tanya was hiding something, she could feel it in her gut. Years in the special forces had taught her to trust her instincts.

"All right, Tanya. Spill it. What's bugging you?"

"What?" Tanya jumped a little. "Nothing! I just need to finish this program, is all."

"Tanya, I can tell when something isn't right with you. You're a terrible liar."

Tanya kept her gaze on the monitor, but she seemed distracted. After a moment, she glanced back at Mallory and gave her a half smile.

"You haven't noticed anything weird about Nosedive lately, have you?"

"Nosedive? No..." Malory's gaze unfocused as she mentally ran through last night's events. "Other than being his usual annoying self, no. Why?"

"He wasn't slurring words or stumbling around last night, right?"

Now Mallory was really curious. "No. Well, he was acting like an idiot, but that's pretty normal. Is something wrong with him?"

"I'm not sure." The blond returned her attention to the computer, apparently dismissing Mallory's presence.

"So, what makes you ask if I noticed anything?" Mallory McMallard never left anything unfinished and she wasn't about to start by letting the conversation drop.

"Oh, uh, nothing."

"Tanya." Her voice was firm, letting her friend know that she was serious.

"Ok, fine." Tanya turned in her chair to fully face Mallory. "Nosedive was down here a few minutes ago and completely blanked out on me. He was just staring into space and trembling. After he came out of it, he acted like nothing had happened. I wanted to check him over for a seizure, but he left before I got a chance."

"Hm." Mallory considered what she had just been told. She could read enough between the lines to know that she wasn't getting the whole story. That was fine; if Tanya didn't want to tell her everything, she wasn't going to pry. Not too much, anyway. "That does sound weird."

"You didn't hit him too hard after he messed with your shoulder pads, did you?"

"What? No!" Hello, temper. Let's try to stay in control for a bit, shall we? "I couldn't even catch him." How dare Tanya insinuate such a thing! She'd never intentionally cause physical harm to a teammate, even one as obnoxious as Nosedive. Threaten him, maybe; put the fear of DuCaine in him, for sure; but harm him, never.

"Sorry. Just checking. I'm just trying to figure out what might have triggered it."

Mallory took a few deep breaths to be sure she was in full control of herself before continuing.

"What were you doing when it happened?"

"I was transferring some files. There were a lot of flashing images. I dunno, maybe the rapid sensory overload triggered something in his synapses."

"Oh." Suddenly, the answer was staring Mallory in the face. "That wasn't a seizure you saw."

"No?" Tanya frowned. "Then what was it?"

"A flashback. He probably saw something in one of those pictures that was close enough to a memory that it caused a flashback. Did he act like a completely different person afterwards? And kind of angry? Like he wanted to fight?"

"Duh, yeah! How'd you know?"

"My brother did that for a while after he was discharged. He had these flashbacks for months afterwards. One minute, he'd be fine; then, a news report about the border disputes in Cydion would come on or something similar and he'd just space out on us. Sometimes, he'd totally flip out if we did the wrong thing after he came out of it."

"So, you think Nosedive had a flashback?" Tanya sounded doubtful, like there was no way Mallory could know something she didn't.

"Affirmative." As she had learned from past experience, it was best to completely avoid someone who had one of those episodes for an hour or so afterwards. Something about the memories triggered a very defensive, and occasionally violent, response. "Just, leave him alone. He'll go to Wildwing or Grin if he needs to."

"But, I could, maybe, you know, help him."

"No, Tanya. Just drop it. Trust me."

"Maybe."

Ooh! Tanya could be just as infuriating as Nosedive at times. Couldn't she get her head out of academia once in a while and listen to real world experience?

"If you go messing around with this, you won't like the response you get. And, you'll probably make things worse. Just, leave Nosedive alone." Was she serious? Yeah, she was. It was hard to believe, but she was actually standing up for Nosedive Flashblade, the most aggravating avian in history.

"Okay," Tanya finally agreed.

Somehow, Mallory doubted Tanya was going to listen to her. But, that was the best she was going to get. Now, she had a knee to get taken care of and nothing was going to get in the way of a nice, relaxing massage.

0000

Tanya couldn't stop thinking about Nosedive's episode. What Mallory had told her made sense, especially considering the nature of the images that had been displayed. But, what if Mallory was wrong? What if it wasn't a flashback? She'd be remiss in her duties to the team if she didn't make sure he was okay.

Once everything had transferred from her Omnitool, she quickly unplugged it from Drake One and returned it to her wrist. A few quick keystrokes locked down all of the information so she could go through it later and decide what needed to be secured or not.

Nosedive had said he was going to Captain Comics, so that would be the best place to start looking for him. She headed upstairs to go find the young drake. He may not like it, but she wasn't going to leave him alone until she had managed a full scan of his brain.

The sound of pucks ricocheting off the boards echoed throughout the large arena as she walked past. Nosedive's and Wildwing's laughter followed the gun-shot loud noise. Good. It looked like she didn't have to go as far as the mall to track him down after all.

"Nosedive!" Tanya called from the entrance to the ice rink. "Can I, uh, talk to you for a minute?"

A very sweaty Nosedive rolled his eyes a little and shook his head no before circling around the net and trying to slip another puck past the goalie.

Sighing at his stubbornness, she opened the gate and stepped onto the ice. There was no point in bothering with putting on skates. A lifetime of living on the ice kept her from even having to think about keeping her balance.

"Nosedive, I'm serious. I need you down below right away."

"I'm fine, Taunny." He easily glided backwards, keeping a good distance between them. If Mallory couldn't catch him last night when he'd been in his socks, Tanya didn't have a prayer of reaching him.

"Dive," Wildwing turned to his brother. "Maybe we should go. It can't hurt anything."

"Seriously, Wing? You're going to gang up on me now?" The hurt was clear in his voice.

"No! It's just-" Wildwing paused as he approached his brother and rested a gloved hand on his shoulder. "What if she's right? What if it is some sort of seizure? If it is, then maybe you could be treated for it and not have to deal with all that anymore."

"But what about you?"

"What about me? I can handle it. Come on, let's go get you checked out."

"Fine," the youth relented. "But only if you do too."

"I think I can do that," Wildwing nodded. "Hey, Tanya, give us a few minutes to get cleaned up first?"

"Okay." Finally! Someone had gotten through to Nosedive. Of course, it would have been Wildwing. "I'll just, head to the, uh, infirmary and get things ready to go."

0000

Wildwing stood over the Medicom his brother was laying on, wings crossed. He had removed the mask for the time being. It didn't escape his attention that he relied on it to hide his emotions more often than he cared to admit. But, for Nosedive, he had chosen to leave his face open.

Nosedive lay still, except for his impatiently drumming fingers as the circular head of the medical unit rotated, scanning him. He looked completely bored and slightly annoyed.

Normally, this is where Nosedive would make a joke, but Wildwing could tell his brother wasn't in a playful mood. Ah well, he must fulfill his duty as a leader and take Nosedive's place as the class clown.

The soft whirring of the Medicom stopped and a single, high pitched beep signaled it was finished.

Wildwing glanced at the control panel and smiled slightly.

"Amazing! Tanya, how is he still alive?"

"What?" The team's makeshift medic frowned in utter confusion as she checked the readout. "What do you mean?"

"There's a huge, empty space where his brain's supposed to be!"

"Oh, ha, ha, Wing. Very funny." Nosedive didn't seem in the least bit amused. "So, what's it say?"

"Well, there's uh, nothing, nothing physically wrong with you." Tanya shrugged. "According to this, you're perfectly healthy."

"See?" The youth taunted as he sat up. "I told ya, I'm fine." He hopped off and looked to his brother. "Your turn."

"Uh... No." Wildwing was suddenly very nervous about letting Tanya scan him. "There's nothing wrong with you and there isn't anything wrong with me either."

"No," Nosedive said pointedly, "You just run around at night, decking people in your sleep."

"What?" Now Tanya was really confused. "Okay, what's going on here?"

"Nothing, Tanya. Let's just get it over with," Wildwing sighed and lay down on the bed.

Soft whirring filled the leader's ears as the golden wheel around his head started rotating. He lay still, knowing the Medicom would finish faster if he didn't keep shifting around.

"Well, this is interesting," Tanya said as results started appearing on the consol at the foot of the medical unit.

"What?" He lifted his head for a better look at the team tech as she walked around the bed and started inspecting his right wing.

"Well, it's just that, I've never, you know, heard of something like this." Her deft fingers quickly found the rice sized nodule resting in the divot between his deltoid and triceps. She squeezed it a little, inspecting the implant and trying to figure out exactly what it was.

He quickly pushed her hand away and covered the spot with his left hand. Sitting up, he swung his legs over the bed and turned his back to her.

"It's nothing."

"Wildwing, do you know what that is?" She stood with one hand on her hip, leaning towards him. Tanya's determination to find out answers was always an asset to the team when it came to foiling Dragaunus' plans; now it was just a nuisance.

"No, and I don't want to." He stood, desperate to escape. Nosedive stepping in front of him with a concerned look on his face stopped him.

"It's that weird spot on your arm, isn't it? The one that was all red when you came back."

"I can remove pretty easily," Tanya offered. "It's really just a simple procedure."

Oh how he wanted that knot out of his arm. He'd wanted it out ever since it was injected. Nosedive had even had to stop him from clawing at it when he was delirious from fever.

Images of a crazed duck floated before his eyes. The small, almost sickly looking gray mallard grinned sinisterly at him.

Wildwing shook his head and focused on Nosedive in front of him. Dr. Bacillus had him for a week; he wouldn't allow that twisted maniac to keep invading his mind now.

"Not now, Tanya." It was hard to force the words from his suddenly dry throat. Despite his desperation to remove that, that _thing_, he simply couldn't face having someone else messing with him medically. "If I'm ever unconscious, you can take it out then."

"Um..." Tanya was beyond confused.

"Did the Medicom say anything else?" He finally turned to face her, carefully schooling his expression into one of calm strength. Why did he have to show up here without the mask? Life would just be so much easier if he glued that thing to his face.

"Uh, no. You're perfectly healthy too." Tanya didn't seem too concerned about the readouts. She was far more interested in whatever was implanted in his arm.

"Good. Let's get the Aerowing fixed. I don't want it out of commission any longer than necessary in case Dragaunus attacks." Yeah, he could pull the leader card pretty well by now. If nothing else, it certainly helped him get out of situations he'd rather not be in.

0000

Repairs on the Aerowing were progressing nicely. They had finally removed all of the damaged metallic skin, exposing the twisted frame and electrical components. Now, it was time to straighten out that frame so it could fly once more.

The nose of the plane curved towards the sky like a surrendering criminal. They couldn't just attach the two inch thick chain to it and pull the front compartment back into alignment; that would cause the steel to fracture. Instead, they had to carefully heat it at strategic locations while gradually applying downward pressure.

Mallory and Tanya were stationed on either side of the fuselage with propane fueled heat torches. This time, regulators had been applied to keep them from reaching cutting temperatures. They only needed a certain level of heat, not enough to cut or melt. Grin and Nosedive operated one winch while Wildwing and Duke controlled the other.

"Okay, now. Another two degrees!" Tanya called out as her section reached the necessary 1200°F.

Nosedive and Grin instantly complied, pulling the levers on their winch to tighten the chain connected to the plane's nose another two degrees down.

Mallory continued to slowly move her torch over the crimped metal, carefully observing the change in color as it heated. She had worked construction during the summer for her last two years of high school. Not the most glamorous job, but it paid well and got her out of the house. That experience had been invaluable when it came to building their secret base and helping keep things in good working order.

"Three degrees!" the redhead called out as the steel reached the appropriate satiny silver color. She was glad the bulk of the Aerowing lay between her and Tanya. The team tech couldn't be happy with the way Mallory kept pushing the limits of structural safety. But, she knew what she was doing.

A loud groaning reverberated as the chain pulled taught. Suddenly, an explosive cracking noise filled the air and the chain broke, one half dangling from the fuselage, the other flying straight at Duke.

"Duke! Look out!" Wildwing shouted, reaching for his friend to pull him out of the way.

Almost instinctually, Duke dropped and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the thick chain as it collapsed on the ground in a grand cacophony. If the gray drake hadn't been paying attention, he could have been badly injured.

"You okay?" Nosedive inquired, running over to the one eyed duck.

"Fine," Duke grunted as he stood.

"What happened?" Tanya demanded as she climbed down the scaffolding.

"Oh, nothin' much," Duke sarcastically replied. "Just narrowly avoided being introduced to the weakest link."

"Great," Wildwing studied the broken chain. "Now we'll have to go buy a replacement before we can finish." He turned to Duke and put his hand on the thief's shoulder. "I'm glad you weren't hurt."

"Where there is a will, there is a way," Grin said as he inspected the length of chain wrapped around the spool on the floor. There was just enough to reach from the Aerowing to about two feet off the floor; it wasn't enough to reconnect it to the winch, but he could easily reach the remaining links. "If we hook what is left to the Aerowing, I can replace the winch."

"I dunno," Tanya hesitated. "Are you strong enough to do that?"

"Yes." Grin's calm assurance was all the go-ahead the team needed.

"Okay," Wildwing agreed. "Mallory! Unhook the broken chain. Nosedive, you take the rest up to her. Grin, do your thing."

Everyone readily followed their leader's orders and they were soon in position once more to repair their fallen plane.

"You good to go?" Mallory asked. At Grin's nod, she again started heating the damaged metal.

Large, gray hands gripped the cold metal of the chain as Grin waited for Mallory's signal. The silvery alloyed links wrapped around his right arm twice to give him more leverage. He focused on his breathing as he mentally ran through what he was about to do, preparing his body for the coming strain.

"Okay!" Mallory shouted. "Two degrees!"

The massive duck grunted as he threw all his strength into the chain, leaning back and pulling downwards. At first, he couldn't see or feel anything happening. Determined not to fail the team, he poured more of himself into the effort, groaning at the tension. He could feel the superheated metal slowly giving way. Suddenly, two white hands grasped the chain just above his and Wildwing's weight and strength were added to his own. Together, they hauled downwards; their combined strength was just enough to replace the useless winch.

"That's enough!" Mallory called down. She could hardly believe it, but they had actually managed to physically bend the steel far enough. Now, they had to wait a few minutes for it to cool before re-heating it and moving another two degrees. Even if the restoration didn't require periods of rest between the heating and cooling of steel, the two drakes certainly needed a break between their exertions.

The whole team worked together late into the day. By the time Phil came in with their Hawaiian cuisine, the Aerowing was once again in the proper shape. Tomorrow, they could begin applying the new skin and their airship would once more be ready to fly.


	6. New Skin

Nosedive ambled through the hallways of his underground home. Phil had just come in with their dinner and he was going back to his room for a quick shower. Working on the Aerowing could be just as much of a workout as an entire game, especially when they had to substitute brute strength for broken equipment. Nobody wanted to eat around someone who smelled like old gym socks.

He really, really badly wanted to come up with another prank. That flashback he'd had in front of Tanya was still playing through the back of his mind. There was nothing like a practical joke, or running from a recently victimized teammate, to get his mind off the past. Mallory's temper could always be counted on for a good reaction; but, he'd just got her last night. Pranking Mallory twice in the same number of days was begging for a trip to the infirmary. No, Mallory was out. Wildwing? No, poor guy was short on sleep and didn't need anything else thrown at him right now. Maybe Duke? It'd been a while since he'd done anything to the former thief. Yeah, Duke. The young drake's face lit up with a smile as he began plotting against the gray mallard.

"Nosedive!" Mallory's voice came from behind him. "Wait up!" She jogged down the hallway to catch up with the teen.

He paused for a second, glancing over his shoulder to determine if running or stopping were the better option. She didn't look like she was out for revenge, so he decided to wait.

"Yeah?" He looked down at the redhead. For whatever reason, he found himself grateful for her small stature. It was nice to have someone on the team who was actually smaller than himself. At least he didn't have to endure any short jokes from his teammates with her around!

"Um," She shifted around a little nervously. "Listen, I heard about what happened with Tanya and-"

"Oh, great." His own temper suddenly ignited. "She just can't keep her big beak shut, can she?"

"Hey! I had to work to get it out of her. Now, get that ice off your shoulder and calm down for a minute." Damn that military training of hers; when Mallory gave an order, people around her almost instinctively followed. "I just wanted to talk, okay?"

"About what?"

"About your flashbacks. I know that wasn't a seizure she saw, even if Tanya won't get that ridiculous idea out of her head."

He raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Had Duke said something? What would she know about flashbacks?

"My brother had them," she continued, as if reading his mind. "He almost lost his leg in a skirmish during the Cydion disputes. When he was medically discharged, he finally came home; but, he wasn't the same drake I'd grown up with. If he saw something on the news or someone said the wrong thing to him, he'd space out for a bit. Hell, he'd even do it whenever my mom made corn chowder!" She smiled slightly. "We never did figure that one out... What could be so terrifying about corn chowder?"

Despite himself, Nosedive found his anger vanishing. Mallory was actually acting completely normal around him, not treating him like a freak or duckling. And she was telling him about her family; Mallory _never_ spoke about her family.

"I dunno," Nosedive joked, "He was afraid of the kernels?"

Mallory rolled her eyes at the terrible pun before continuing.

"Anyway, he'd sometimes flip out after the flashbacks. He went to a lot of doctors and therapists, but they didn't really help. A friend finally put us in touch with Grin. I have no idea what Grin did, but he brought my brother back." She calmly looked him in the eye; her gaze held no accusation or pity, only concern for a friend. "I think he could really help you if you're willing to talk to him."

"Oh, sure," Nosedive quipped. "What am I supposed to do? Walk up to him and say 'Hey, buddy! I sometimes go for a little visit through the worst parts of my life and I'd like to tell you all about it.' Thanks for the tip, Mallory, but I don't think so. I can handle it." He turned to go to his room.

"Yeah, exactly that." She reached out for his shoulder to stop him and turned him to face her again. "Seriously, Nosedive. I watched this happen to my brother and I don't want it to happen to you. The longer you ignore it, the worse it gets. You might be able to handle it for a few months, but you're eventually going to loose control. What are you going to do it you have a flashback when we're fighting Dragaunus? As much as we try, we can't always look out for each other in combat."

"It doesn't happen in battle," he shook his head. "Something about it is..." He wasn't sure how to word it. It was somehow calming, that adrenalin rush of war, making split second decisions that could mean life or death. When he was fighting, nothing else mattered. Nothing else existed.

"Focusing?" she supplied.

"Yeah," he nodded with a half smile. "That's a good word for it."

"I know. It is for me too." She was really pretty when she smiled. How did he never notice that before? "Listen, talk to Grin if you get a chance. You know he won't judge you or tell anyone else."

"I might," he relented. His stomach chose that moment to add its own gurgling complaint to the conversation. "But first, I've gotta get cleaned up and eat!"

Mallory laughed and continued to smile.

"That's a good idea. Oh, and Nosedive," her voice suddenly took on a friendly warning tone, "Touch my gear again and you die."

"Got it, girly-girl!" He raised his hand in the okay symbol and darted into his room.

_Wow, was that weird_, he thought as he threw his sweaty shirt into his corner of the room. _Who'd have thought _Mallory_ of all ducks would know something about this?_ His boots and the rest of his clothing quickly followed as he walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

He continued to mull over their conversation while the hot water ran over his back. Maybe she had a point. It wasn't like Grin couldn't keep a secret. Besides, the big guy was easy to talk to; it might not be a bad idea to have someone other than Wildwing to confide in. That way, he wouldn't have to add to his brother's already immense load of burdens.

By the time he was finished with his shower, the young duck had decided on two things. One, he was going to have a talk with Wildwing and then both of them would go see Grin. Two, he was starving!

0000

Duke was doing his best to find the end of Grin's patience; he was sure of it. The massive duck watched as his one-eyed teammate went through the list of entrées, carefully placing each duck's orders together. Considering how much they all ate, this was no easy task. Grin himself had ordered no less than three items. He had worked hard today and he was hungry! The enticing aromas weren't doing much to calm the rumbling in his stomach.

"Come on, Duke!" Mallory urged, echoing Grin's own sentiments. "Can't you go any faster?"

"Maybe," he said with a sly smile. "Maybe not."

"Move it," Mallory shoved him aside and looked at the list. It only took a second for her to look at the paper and start sliding each dish to the appropriate seat at the table.

"Hey! I was doin' that." He glared at her, one hand on a hip and the other pointing at her.

"And now I am." She ignored his posturing and continued going through the bags, divvying out the food. "You can go get the drinks."

"Hope you like orange juice," he muttered as he walked to the refrigerator, knowing full well that she hated the pulpy beverage.

Tanya brought in a pile of plates and silverware and began setting the table, ignoring Duke and Mallory's ever-present bickering.

Grin loved watching how everyone interacted at meal times. This was when they were all most relaxed, able to focus on building their relationship with each other without the distraction of battle, practice, or strange publicity stunts.

"Hey," Phil complained as he counted the chairs around the table. "Where's my seat?"

Smiling on the inside, Grin contemplated telling Phil to sit on the floor. However, that wasn't the kind thing to do.

"I'll get it," the muscled drake offered.

"Thanks, Grin." Phil didn't even turn around. Instead, he was too focused on trying to find his own meal.

By the time he returned from the storage closet with the chair, Wildwing had joined in. The leader had taken his accustomed seat at the head of the long table and was patiently waiting for everyone else to be ready.

"Seriously?" Mallory had finished sorting out the orders and walked to her seat when she noticed the glass of orange juice resting there. She threw a dirty look at Duke before moving the beverage to Nosedive's seat and going to the refrigerator.

The thief shrugged nonchalantly as he continued pouring himself a glass of water. The glass pitcher always sat in the middle of the table at meals, ready for anyone who wanted a refill.

"Awesome!" Nosedive shouted as he slid into the room, slightly wet hair sticking to his face. "Chow time." The youth quickly sat next to his brother, picked up the styrofoam box, and dumped everything onto his plate in one messy heap. He tossed the empty container to the center of the table and snagged his soup in one deft move, dropping the round soup lid into the empty to-go box.

"Hungry?" Wildwing quipped, one eyebrow quirked.

"Starving."

"When are you not hungry?" Mallory teased as she took her seat, a half-full wine glass in hand.

"Why didn't you say you were gettin' the wine, sweetheart?"

"Because someone wanted orange juice." She smirked as she slowly swirled the deep maroon liquid in her glass and took a small sip. Setting the glass down, she started moving half the food from her box to her plate. Once an appropriate portion had been divvied out, the remaining food was placed in the center of the table.

It was almost a tradition among the team whenever they had takeout. Each duck would first dish out their order, then place any remaining food in the middle of the table to be shared. Anything left in the carryout containers was fair game for whoever wanted it. This way, they all had a chance to share as much or as little as they wanted without feeling forced into it.

"Ooh! I want some!" Nosedive piped up as Duke headed to the kitchen for his own glass of vino.

"Nuh-uh. You're too young, kid."

"Not on Puckworld, I'm not."

"Well," Tanya broke in, "We're not on Puckworld. Are we?"

Nosedive silently mouthed Tanya's words while rolling his eyes.

"Sorry, baby brother. Technically, I'm not old enough here either. Guess we'll have to drink whatever else is around." With a sly smile, the leader snatched Nosedive's orange juice and took a drink.

When Duke returned, he set a can of cola in front of Nosedive before taking his seat once more.

"Thank you, Phil." Grin was suspect of his manager's reasons for providing dinner tonight, but no gift should go unacknowledged. "This sustenance is a delight to my soul." He knew how corny that sounded, but couldn't help himself. It was almost a game he played to see how much he could confuse the human.

"Uh, you're welcome. I think." Phil stammered as he took another bite of his filet mignon.

"Yes, thank you," Wildwing added.

"Yeah, the food's great!" Nosedive said around a mouth full of pasta.

"So, what crazy stunt do you want from us in exchange for the dinner?" Mallory asked.

"Nothing!" Phil blustered. "I just thought you guys could take a break from cooking tonight and enjoy a little fine cuisine."

"Hehe, yeah," Tanya laughed. "And lizards love ice."

"Well, maybe there is one, little, teensy, tiny thing."

Wildwing set his fork down and leveled a very unamused gaze at the portly human.

"What?" The goalie didn't sound too irritated. After all, he'd known to expect something like this when he had accepted the offer.

"I was sort of hoping for the next few days off," Phil asked. "My sister and her family are moving back to Anaheim and need some help."

"Is that all?" Wildwing seemed very surprised by the request. "Of course you can have the next few days off! Take the whole week off!"

"Really?" Phil looked so hopeful it was almost sad.

"Of course," Wildwing assured. "You don't have to bribe us for time off."

"Yes he does," Nosedive threw in. "If the bribes include food like this, I'm going to need a bribe every time he wants to go home."

"That's great!" Phil cheered. "My sister's niece is moving in with her too, so they really need the help."

"Wouldn't she be your niece too?" Tanya queried.

"Not really." The lone human took another bite of his steak and chewed thoroughly before continuing. "Laura is my brother-in-law's brother's kid. So, she's my sister's niece, but not mine."

"Uh... I think I understood that," Duke shook his head as he lightly laughed.

"You guys will probably meet her at some point. Laura is a huge fan. She watches all your games. If she hadn't been living in Oregon, she'd probably have been at more than a few."

"She sounds nice," Wildwing commented. "Have her come for a tour of the Pond some time. Chuck had his grandson here today. I don't see any problem with it, as long as you stick to the above ground parts and stay out of the locker room."

"That's really great of you, Wildwing," Phil praised. "She's going to love moving here!"

Grin continued to remain silent through most of the meal, preferring to watch rather than join in. He could tell something was bothering his team captain, but didn't want to bring it up in front of everyone and embarrass him. The white drake was very good at hiding his emotions, but aura's couldn't be hidden and didn't lie.

Once the meal was finished and everyone started leaving, Grin saw his opportunity. It was his turn to clear the table while Nosedive and Wildwing did the dishes. Nosedive had already started filling the sink with water while Phil, Tanya, Duke, and Mallory had gone to the rec room for some TV time. Wildwing was walking around the table, gathering empty glasses and silverware.

"Wildwing," he started as he re-packaged the few leftovers into storage containers.

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to join me for some tea after you are done with the dishes?"

The leader seemed a little uncomfortable, unsure to accept or decline. He continued focusing on picking up the used utensils.

"I merely wanted to continue our discussion from last night."

"Okay. Yeah." Wildwing nodded once, but still didn't make eye contact. "Sounds good." He then left the table and dumped the dirty dishes in the sink.

0000

Nosedive kept throwing accusatory glances at the dishwasher as he scrubbed the remaining food from a plate and rinsed it.

"I don't think glaring at it is going to make it work again," Wildwing joked.

"I know. Any idea why Tanya hasn't fixed it yet?"

"I think she said something about letting Mallory have a go at it."

"Oh, great!" He made a quick grab for the glass that had slipped out of his hand and caught it before it hit the floor. "Like Mallory isn't already bad enough with machines. How'd she break it this time?"

"She probably touched it." Wildwing shrugged as he took the freshly cleaned glass and dried it.

They continued to work in silence for a few moments. With the two of them working together, it didn't take long before the pile of dishes was nearly finished.

Nosedive wanted to bring up his discussion with Mallory, but couldn't think of the best way to do it. Even though he knew he could talk to Wildwing about anything, there were just some topics he didn't want to talk about while underground.

"Hey, bro, want to go for a walk after we're done here?"

"Sorry," the white drake apologized as he closed a cabinet door. "I'd love to, but Grin wanted to talk with me about something. Maybe later?"

"Yeah, sure," he tried to shrug off his disappointment. Wildwing was the leader after all; he had responsibilities to the whole team and not just him. But, there were times when he wished he didn't have to share his brother with everyone else.

"Besides, you'd miss your show! Isn't it starting soon?"

"Oh yeah!" He suddenly brightened up as he glanced at the clock. Five minutes to spare. The young drake hurriedly finished the dishes so he could join the others in the rec room.

0000

Once again, Wildwing was trying to find a comfortable way to sit on Grin's cushioned floor. How could Grin stand not having any furniture? After a few more moments of trying different positions, he decided on sitting with his legs crossed, even if that position did put his right leg to sleep after a while.

"So, what'd you want to talk about?" the white drake asked as he absentmindedly tapped the cup of tea with one finger.

His massive companion smiled gently and once again focused on the tea pot and small boxes of herbs in front of him, carefully arranging them into some specific order.

"I was hoping you would want to set down whatever burden it is you carry. I can tell it's been growing heavier."

The emotionally exhausted drake stared at his drink, debating what to do. Grin almost never asked for anything; now, he was asking Wildwing to do the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life. How could he expose his failures to his teammate?

_"Tomorrow night," the middle-aged duck nodded emphatically as she leaned heavily on her makeshift walking stick. Her ratty, brown hair had been tied back in a messy ponytail. "Something's going on the next sector over and there will be one less monitor tower to watch us."_

_"You're sure?" Wildwing asked. They only had one shot at this; if they didn't succeed, then they'd likely all die. Still, there wasn't much of a choice; it was either die a slave or die fighting for freedom._

_"I heard it too," Boo whispered. The dusty feathered drake was very muscled, his height difficult to judge because of the way his back hunched. He was a former wrestler, but the invasion had physically broken him. "Tomorrow's our best chance."_

_Wildwing carefully considered their options as he studied the five other ducks sitting in a circle. Brook, the brunette who had first spoken, had been injured in the work lines a week ago. Ever since then, she'd carried that pole that was nearly as tall as herself. Her hands were now wrapped in the black, rubbery tape they used to insulate drone circuitry. Boo was another one who had sustained an injury in the work lines only two days ago; ever since then, his back had been more hunched and he'd walked with a limp. Jack and Vin were both small, weak looking ducks that watched everything and never said much. Wildwing couldn't quite bring himself to fully trust them, despite their usefulness and apparent dedication to his plan. The last duck was Nosedive. His brother had been with him through all of this mess, from invasion to capture and enslavement, and he was going to stay by his side throughout their fight for freedom. _

_The young leader glanced over his shoulder and saw Mikayla playing with two other ducklings near her age. Despite their capture, the very young were allowed to stay in the camp while those physically able to lift more than twenty pounds were sent off to work every day. Their childish antics helped keep the older ducks going, reminding them that there was a future, even if it wasn't promising. Setting his jaw, Wildwing again vowed that he would make that future a good one for Mikayla, Nosedive, and everyone else._

_"Okay," he nodded. "Tomorrow. Boo, I know you hurt your back, so I want you to take the right offensive. Brook-"_

_"I'm not that injured," Boo broke in. With a quick glance over his shoulder to see if any hunter drones were watching, he sat up straight and tall, revealing a little more his impressive height and strength. After a second, he again resumed the dejected, injured posture he'd carried ever since Wildwing had known him. "Figured out a while ago that they don't like ducks who can fight back. Look injured and pathetic, they leave you alone. Besides," his eyes sparkled with a secret, "Walking like this lets me hide things." He opened the front of his shirt to reveal a massive chain with a wicked hook on the end wrapped around his torso. "Got my weapon for the fight."_

_"Good," Wildwing nodded, impressed._

_"He's not the only one faking," Brook added. "This here walking stick does a little more than keep me up." She pointed it towards the ground and the end of the metallic pole sparked red for a brief moment. "I stole one of the power cores for a drone and made my own little lightening rod. If anyone touches this, they'll get a nasty shock they won't be getting up from."_

_"Cool!" Nosedive reached for it, only to have Brook quickly grab his wrist and push his hand away. "Think you can make me one too?"_

_"Don't touch," she reminded sternly. "Not enough time to make you one."_

_"What about you?" Wildwing looked towards Jack and Vin. "Did you keep any cores for yourself?" Vin had been a stage magician and was extremely skilled at slight of hand; he'd been stealing power cores for the past three months and stockpiling them for the planned rebellion._

_"Don't need weapons to start a distraction," Jack growled. His shaggy, brown hair fell into his eyes, hiding his gaze._

_"Nah; I can fight with just these," Vin smirked, raising his hands and making fists. "Sides, us having weapons will only make the guards suspicious of the rest of you."_

_"Good point," Wildwing nodded. He again observed the alternate captains in front of him. Most hockey teams only had one alternate, maybe two. But, considering the size of his force, he needed the five under-captains. Each duck was the leader of a larger group numbering closer to twenty or thirty. Now, it was time to give them their team names so he'd have something to direct the larger forces by during the battle. "Tomorrow, then. Boo, you still have the right offensive; your team is Chain. Brook, you take the right defense; you're Spark. Nosedive will handle left offense with Core while I try to get the drones away from the gate at left defense. Jack, Vin, you guys are Fist. Get the distraction going at center ice after the evening meal. Once you've cleared your sector, get back to the neutral zone for the final push."_

_"Bro," Nosedive looked a little worried. "You sure you want to split up?"_

_"No, but we have to. One of us needs to make it for Mikayla. We have a better chance if we're on separate teams."_

_"And what's your team?" Brook demanded. _

_"Ice."_

He was tired of holding it all in. Finally accepting the help, Wildwing leaned back a little, bending one leg and resting his elbow on it, making himself more comfortable for what he was about to do. After swirling the tea in his cup a little, he downed it all in one gulp, wishing there was something much stronger in the small vessel than just tea.

"There were six of us, including Nosedive and myself." He spoke hesitantly and quietly, afraid of what he was admitting. "We'd worked for months coming up with a plan to take down the drones guarding our camp. If we could start the fight, we knew the rest of the camp would join in on the rebellion. There was no way the twenty drones and two monitor towers guarding us could stand against six hundred ducks fighting for our freedom. Brook found out that one of the monitor towers was being moved the next sector over for the night. That was when we attacked."

_"Got enough blankets?" Wildwing asked as he helped Mikayla to slip under the hastily built bunk house they slept in with fifty other ducks. It was bitterly cold out, and likely to get worse as night fell. Still, it was safer for her to hide under the bunk than inside it incase they failed; he wanted her well hidden if the hunter drones came looking for hostages to end the rebellion or started randomly firing at everyone._

_"Yup!" She happily smiled. _

_"Stay here and keep quiet," the white drake instructed as he knelt by the small hole. "Don't come out for anything, no matter what you hear. Nosedive or I will be back for you when the fighting is over."_

_"Wing?" Her green eyes suddenly looked sad and frightened as she jumped out of the small crawl space. _

_"Yeah?"_

_"I love you!" She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and held on with all the strength in her little body. "I don't want you to go."_

_"Hey, squirt," Nosedive knelt next to her. "We have to." He placed a hand on her back, rubbing it soothingly._

_"It's going to be okay, Kayla," Wildwing added. "It shouldn't take too long. There aren't that many drones to take down."_

_The duckling released her hold on Wildwing and transferred it to Nosedive. _

_"I love you too, Divey," she whispered._

_After a moment, the small child backed away and picked up Bunny from where he had fallen, holding him tightly to her chest with both arms._

_"I saw Mommy and Daddy," she whispered hopefully. "They're coming to take me home."_

_"Um," Wildwing and Nosedive shared a quick glance before the older continued. "We're going to find a new home soon. One where there aren't any drones and we don't have to work. There's going to be enough to eat and we can play hockey again."_

_That young face lit up with such a happy smile that Wildwing couldn't help but return it. If they survived tonight, he was going to have a hard time keeping that promise; but, he'd do anything to keep his brother and adopted sister safe._

_"See ya soon." Nosedive again pulled back the corrugated metal that hid the crawl space entrance._

_"Bye, Wing. Bye, Dive," she waved as she crawled under the building and vanished into darkness._

"We didn't have many weapons," Wildwing continued, his voice slowly growing stronger. "But, we had prepared as best we could. Jack and Vin started a fist fight in the middle of camp while Brook, Boo, Nosedive, and I each took a corner."

_Wildwing walked slowly towards the north gate, limping a little and looking as tired and worn out as possible. He drifted aimlessly forward, trying not to draw attention to himself. The other ducks on his team were already mostly in position, scattered around the open area near the front gate. Many were tense, clearly unsure about what was going to take place._

_Six drones guarded the gate. They were evenly spaced, each one able to defend the others in case of attack._

_The white drake half sat, half collapsed to the ground as he watched his robotic captors out of his peripheral vision. Soon. His chance would come soon._

_Loud shouting and screams came from the center of camp. A huge brawl had broken out and ducks were yelling, cheering on the combatants._

_Two drones broke from the line and started for the middle of camp to help break up the dispute._

_He waited, staring at them impassively as the robotic legs passed right in front of him. As soon as they were a safe distance away, he leaped up and ran to the remaining four, yelling at the top of his lungs._

_"For Puckworld!" He pulled the laser charging cube he'd swiped from the assembly line that morning from his pocket and quickly pressed the right sequence of buttons to overload it. A high pitched whine filled his ears as the weapon component reached critical mass._

_The rest of his team bolted to their feet, joining in on the charge, following their leader into their first battle. The war for freedom had begun._

_"Halt!" The robotic demand was backed up with a raised arm that ended in a laser cannon._

_"Not a chance, tin trash," the slave growled. He leaped into the air sideways, dodging the blow that would have killed him had it landed. As he rolled towards the drone, he again regained his footing and thrust the charged cube into the small gap between the androids chest cavity and torso. Leaping away, he ran as fast as his legs would carry him, dodging lethal bolts of energy._

_The core exploded, taking out two drones with it. A hail of red metal descended upon the duck and charred bits of metal implanted themselves into the hard ground._

_"Hah!" Wildwing laughed as he turned to survey the damage. Two down, two more to go. He'd already lost four of his team to the laser fire; it was hard to tell if they were dead or just injured. _

_"Reign, Shad," he called out above the fray, "Get the injured to the back."_

_That cut his force further, but he couldn't just leave the downed avians to their pain and possible death._

_The chest plate from one drone lay not too far from him. Thinking quickly, he grabbed it in his right hand and used it as a shield to protect himself from the barrage of enemy fire. A few determined steps brought him to a dismembered drone arm, still equipped with its laser cannon._

_"All right!" He snatched it up and started using the cannon as his own weapon. Now, he was ready to take on all of Dragaunus' robotic army._

_His main position on the ice may be goalie, but that didn't mean he didn't have excellent aim. In fact, catching projectiles flying at him at ninety miles an hour gave him superb aim. He picked one drone and fired at it repeatedly, taking it out before it did any more damage to his fellow Puckworlders._

_The rest of Ice was handling the other drone, swarming it and pulling it to the ground. They used whatever makeshift weapons they had been able to find to pulverize their robotic captor._

"I was kind of surprised how easy it was to take out the four drones near the gate. After they were down, I checked on Nosedive." He smiled a little at the memory of seeing the teen fighting three drones almost single handedly. Nosedive had always been a rebel and never much of one for leadership; his force had been fairly scattered and doing whatever they could without direction. "That little punk was running circles around them, using a sling to take them out with energy cores. He'd even managed to trick one drone into firing on another." He chuckled a little before once again becoming serious.

_"Nosedive!" He was horrified to see his brother trip and a drone descending upon him. Without thinking, he was suddenly in front of his sibling, metallic shield up, and firing at the last drone. Smoldering wreckage lay around the two drakes, evidence of how successful Nosedive and his team had been at taking down three of the four._

_"Nice to see you too, bro," Nosedive joked as he rolled to his feet._

_"We've got to get back to the center and help Jack and Vin."_

_"No problemo. I'm out of cores. Let me grab some guns of my own first." The youth searched around them for two of the laser-equipped drone limbs and armed himself. "Let's take these tin turkeys down!"_

_"Ice, Core!" Wildwing yelled at the now combined forces. "Center ice!"_

_The middle of their slave camp was a melee of destruction as the new forces joined in. Drones from each sector had been sent to the middle at the start of the brawl and were doing their best to subdue their slaves. _

_Wildwing had been right; once the other captives realized they could take down their enemies, everyone had joined in. Many ducks lay injured, others running around them to join the fight. Some of the weaker ducks were trying to drag the injured away from the battle. _

_Brooke stood back to back with Boo, her lightening rod swirling in a deadly circle, sparking at the ends in a beautiful and deadly display of power. Boo's hefty chain was never still, swinging in a figure eight in front of him only to break from its pattern and fly towards a drone, wrapping around its neck and pulling it to the ground. The dusty drake would then jump on his robotic victim, using the other end of the chain to beat it to pieces. Jack and Vin were nowhere to be seen. _

_"Fist! Take the injured to the front gate," the captain ordered, quickly taking control for the missing alternates. _

"We had taken out most of the drones. Everyone in the camp was either fighting or helping remove the injured and dead."

_The cheer that went up throughout the revolutionary ducks as the last drone fell quickly died at the approach of the lone monitor tower left to guard them. The forty foot tall robot towered over the slaves; its hard skin nearly impervious to projectiles. The head swung its reptilian gaze in a small circle, gauging where to strike first. Although it was equipped with both laser cannons and missiles, the robot started by merely lifting its massive foot and trying to literally crush the rebellion._

_He had no idea where the plan came from, but Wildwing suddenly knew what to do. It was a strain to make his voice heard over the cries of terror and anger, but he somehow managed._

_"Chain, immobilize the legs! Core, attack the head! Spark, shock that thing into submission! Ice, Fist, help pull it down!"_

_Everyone on their respective teams reacted quickly to follow orders; ducks who weren't originally named to a team quickly picked one._

_Boo swung his chain around the legs, neatly wrapping it_ _around them and keeping the robot from moving forward. His force quickly moved in, holding onto the chain to keep the robot from simply lifting one leg up and breaking free. Core stood back, throwing rocks, charged cores, chunks of ice, and whatever they could get a hold of as a projectile at the head, trying their best to blind it. Brook ran forward, using her lightning rod as a vaulting pole to launch herself higher as she landed on Boo's back. She jammed the charged pole into the robots knee joint and sent a massive power surge through it._

_The monitor tower sparked all over and shuddered, its eyes flaring bright green once before going dark. Everyone pulled the drone to the ground, finally demolishing the last barrier to freedom._

"We actually did it, though. We defeated every hunter drone and took out the monitor tower. All we had to do was pick up the wounded and walk out the gate. But-" his voice cracked and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears. He found himself unable to continue.

_The cheering, dancing, and rejoicing was deafening. They had done it. They were free!_

_Wildwing and Nosedive hugged each other tightly, laughing and crying at the same time._

_"Let's go get Mikayla and get out of here," Wildwing suggested._

_"Right with ya, bro." Nosedive's face was going to break in half if his smile got any bigger._

_A deathly silence suddenly filled the air as the cheering stopped all at once. Hundreds of drones marched in through the front gate and five more monitor towers landed from the sky, taking up positions at each corner and in the middle._

_"Nosedive," Wildwing's voice trembled as he realized what happened. "Go get Mikayla, now. Run and hide."_

_"No! I'm not leaving you here!"_

_"Now," he ordered, glaring at him. "I don't think we have much longer. Take good care of her."_

_The teen's eyes were blurry with tears as he stared at his leader; he was clearly torn between staying with his brother and defending him or staying alive for the child they'd adopted. _

_"Go," Wildwing urged._

_Finally, the blond turned and ran towards the bunks._

_Jack and Vin stepped through the gates, followed by a massive, orange saurian. The saurian had to weigh nearly a ton. His burly form was only heightened by massive spikes on his shoulder pauldrons. That clubbed tail never stayed still, constantly flipping in small circles, seeking out something to pulverize._

_"All right, duckies," the saurian growled. "You've had your fun. Now, you're gonna pay!"_

_"He's the one," Jack pointed straight to Wildwing. "He started it all."_

_"You lying traitor," Wildwing spat. "We won! You could have been free!"_

_"Oh, but we are free," Vin smirked. "Anyone who turns in information about a rebellion is granted their freedom."_

"We were betrayed." The goalies head hung low at the memory of Jack and Vin. He covered his eyes with one hand, shuddering slightly, trying to hold back the tears and failing. "I made a bad choice and dozens died because of it."

_The saurian, whom Wildwing had mentally dubbed Ugly, lumbered right up to the leader and stared down at him._

_Wildwing did his best to meet the gaze with defiance. He knew they had failed, but he wasn't going down without a fight. Even when that meaty fist swung back and struck him to the ground, Wildwing still glared at Ugly with all the hatred in his soul._

_Roughly, the saurian grabbed the ducks right wrist and held a device over his slave cuff. It beeped softly once._

_"You're a marked duck now." Hideous teeth glinted in the fading light as Ugly smiled. He stormed over to Brook and Boo, also marking their cuffs._

_"Where's the other one?" Ugly demanded._

_"I don't know," Jack looked a little concerned._

_"They're always together," Vin added._

_"Dead," Wildwing growled as he stood, pointing to a body charred from laser burns. It lay face down, the blond hair covering the face._

_"What a shame." Vin didn't sound too concerned or sorrowful. In fact, he acted downright bored._

_Ugly slowly turned in a circle, staring down his slaves._

_"You're property of Dragaunus," he spat. "Don't ever forget that!" He spun in a circle, swinging that evil tail at Wildwing and hitting him in the stomach, sending the duck flying several feet before he crashed into the ground._

_"And to make sure you don't forget," that evil voice continued, "You'll be sleeping in the cold from now on."_

_One of the monitor towers turned towards the shoddily built bunk houses and fired a rocket into each building. The sleeping quarters exploded one by one in a shower of flying debris and flame._

_"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Wildwing rolled to his feet and took two quick steps towards the bunks before being stopped by Boo's strong grip._

_"She's in there! I've got to get her out!"_

_"There's nothing you can do for her," Brook sobbed._

_Wildwing sank to the ground, catatonic. He'd sent Nosedive to retrieve Mikayla. It was his fault. They were both dead because of him. At that moment, he felt his soul break into pieces._

_The white drake was on his knees, staring at the flames, his face completely blank. Brook and Boo stood behind him, each with a hand on a shoulder, the horror on their own faces illuminated by the heated glow of the fire._

_"There's your funeral pyre," Ugly rumbled as he turned his back. "Go throw yourselves on it."_

_With that, the saurian and two traitors walked out the gates, leaving a new, stronger force to guard Hyla._

"Seige... He killed..." Unable to hold the tears back any further, Wildwing began sobbing. He didn't hear Grin get up and move, but welcomed the offered support when that massive arm gently lay across his shoulders. He leaned into Grin and finally allowed himself to grieve.

0000

Grin soothingly rubbed his hand up and down Wildwing's arm as he hugged the sorrowful drake. This was the part of his job that he both loved and hated. It broke his heart to see someone suffering so much, to be shown the pain they hid and needlessly carried alone. But, when an avian reached this point, they were finally able to start healing. No dawn came until the night had passed.

Silent tears filled his own eyes as Grin comforted his leader. He knew the story he'd just heard was only part of the whole truth. There was much more to discuss, but that would come in time. Wilding allowing himself to even talk about the little bit he did was a step in the right direction.

He set a box of tissues on the table next to Wildwing's cup and waited while the pale drake exhausted his sorrow.

Finally, after quite some time, the leader's shaking subsided and he reached for the tissues to dry his eyes and blow his nose.

The gray duck stood and went back to his seat. He'd left a fresh pot of water over the brazier on the table, so there was hot water for more tea. A few scoops of dried lavender and verbena were added to the near-boiling water and allowed to steep.

"I- I'm sorry, Grin," Wildwing said softly, clearly embarrassed.

"There is nothing to be sorry for," he calmed as he focused on the duck in front of him. "You merely showed that you are mortal." He sniffed the tea and was satisfied that it had reached the proper strength. "We all have the capacity for great love and great sorrow." After re-filling the cup, he again pushed it towards Wildwing.

"Hm." Wildwing certainly ended up studying those teas Grin gave him an awful lot. Maybe the leader was trying to read the leaves in the bottom of the cup. "Thank you," he said calmly before taking a small sip of the hot beverage. "You're a real asset to this team. You know that?"

He couldn't help but smile at the compliment. Still, the team had one mission and he had another.

"I would be honored if you'd join me for tea once a week, and to talk about what happened. If you're willing."

Wildwing nodded slowly a few times before meeting the gaze of his companion.

"You know, I think I'd like that. Maybe you could talk to Nosedive too?"

"Of course. Discussing this together as well as alone would help you both. If you would let me know when the best times are for each of you, I will always be available."

Grin could tell Wildwing wasn't quite ready to leave yet. It took time to recover ones strength to put up the shields surrounding their emotions after tearing them down like he just had. Rather than make his leader feel that he needed to leave right away, he turned the conversation to something he new they both loved: defensive plays.

0000

The area in front of the television was set up very similar to a goal crease. A semi-circle of three couches curved in front of the massive, wall-sized television. The couches were plush and comfortable, sitting in a small depression on the floor. Originally, they'd left the area fairly bare, with the exception of one end table. After several instances of finding Nosedive's pillow and some blankets left in there from his morning toon viewing, Mallory had insisted on the addition of a few small pillows and a throw blanket. That way, Nosedive could keep his belongings in his room and stop cluttering up the base.

"All right-ski!" Nosedive cheered as he ran into the rec room and launched himself over the central couch, landing perfectly in the middle the curved furniture. "Time for some good 'ol TV."

"Maybe," Mallory grumbled as she flipped the cushions over on the couch to the left. "I can't find the remote!"

"Are you really that technologically impaired?" Duke teased as he walked up to the television and pushed the power button. A small pillow hit him squarely in the face as he turned around.

Nosedive couldn't help but laugh at them as he reached down in the cushion behind him and pulled out the remote from where had hidden it earlier. He changed the channel and leaned back, spreading his wings wide across the back.

"So, ladies," he grinned. "Where you two going to sit?"

"Hah!" Mallory laughed. "Not next to you." She sat on the couch closest to her and pulled off her boots before stretching out, leaning on a couple of the throw pillows. Apparently, she was going to keep the whole sofa to herself.

"Tanya?" Nosedive patted the seat next to him, inviting her over.

She smiled and ignored him, staying seated on the couch directly opposite from Mallory.

Duke laughed and walked over to Mallory's couch. He stood by her feet and looked at her for a moment, silently asking her to move them so he could sit. When she ignored him, he cleared his throat.

"Go sit next to Nosedive." Mallory sounded quite bored as she kept her gaze fixed on the commercials.

"Come on, Mal Mal," he complained as he swatted at her feet.

The redhead sighed as if she were being forced to accommodate a spoiled duckling, but bent her legs and anyway and gave him half a cushion's space. Duke sat on the narrow opening. His attempt at pushing her feet further off the cushion with his hip resulted in a swift kick to his thigh.

Nosedive stared at Duke and Mallory, completely perplexed as to why the thief would want to sit next to the one person on their team who always antagonized him. The theme song for _Third Rock from the Sun_ pulled his attention back to the screen and the young drake settled in for some quality programming.

"Ey," Duke looked over his shoulder and towards the door. "Where's Wing? He's usually in here by now."

"He and Grin needed to talk about something," Nosedive answered nonchalantly. He had a good idea what the discussion would be about, but wasn't willing to reveal any more information.

"You know, I think it'd be, uh, pretty awkward if we had to pretend to be human," Tanya commented as she studied the television characters complete befuddlement at emotions.

"Ch'yeah!" Nosedive scoffed. "No way would I do something so lame."

"I guess shows like this are humans trying to figure us out," Duke smirked.

"Yeah, right!" Mallory scoffed. "If that's what this was supposed to be, then the characters would be ducks."

"Not necessarily," Tanya quipped. "I mean, they have to be more subtle about it."

"Yeah, and they couldn't exactly hire us for the actors," Duke mused.

"They could always use that stupid costume Phil tried to make Guy Herbert wear!" Mallory laughed.

Nosedive frowned at the screen as the supposed alien Dr. Solomon kissed a very human Dr. Albright and was rewarded with a slap. Dr. Albright then kissed Dr. Solomon and was rewarded with a slap of her own. The scene repeated itself a couple more times, followed by a laugh track.

"Humans. Are. Weird." Nosedive frowned and Duke laughed at the stupidity of Earth programming.

0000

Duke was a little surprised when Wildwing had asked everyone to the ready room for a meeting after they had finished working on the Aerowing. He couldn't think of anything that would require a team meeting. Then again, that was why Wildwing was the leader and not him.

The former thief took a seat and leaned back, stretching his legs out as he waited for Tanya to arrive. Everyone else was present, each duck occupying one of the navy blue computer chairs typically kept in the closet next to Drake One. Wildwing stood, leaning on the super computer for support. It didn't escape the gray mallard's notice that his leader looked apprehensive, but determined.

Duke was still concerned about Wildwing, but knew that he had done all he could for the young drake. Now, he could only do what he did best: sit back and watch, waiting for the right opportunity. Wildwing had been a lot more relaxed all day than Duke could really remember ever having seen him. He'd hoped this was a good sign, but the agitated way Wildwing tapped his fingers against the edge of the computer made him doubt that.

Finally, a slightly singed Tanya came rushing through the door. She brushed some soot off her shoulder before taking her seat.

Wildwing looked around the room, meeting each duck in the eye before starting.

"Thank you all for coming." He sounded a little nervous. "I, uh," he paused, searching for the right words. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. "I need to ask for your help."

Mallory quirked an eyebrow at him and tilted her head, but remained silent.

Nosedive stood and leaned on the computer next to his brother, a hand resting on his shoulder.

"I also need to make a public apology. Duke, I'm sorry for hitting you and I'm sorry I didn't warn you about the possibility of something like that happening sooner."

"You?" Mallory seemed quite stunned. "You hit Duke?" She quickly glanced between the two drakes, mouth slightly open in surprise. "What'd he do?"

"He didn't do anything." Wildwing swallowed hard and cleared his throat. "You all know that Nosedive and I were rescued from a slave camp. What you don't know is that I still have nightmares about it. And I sometimes sleepwalk."

"He's not the only one," Nosedive broke in. "I have nightmares too, but I don't sleepwalk as much."

"No harm done," Duke smoothly accepted the apology. "Just glad to see you're finally admitting there's a problem."

"I never took you for one to suffer from somnambulism," Tanya interjected. "I mean, you've never done anything at away games. And we've never seen anything weird, like missing food or, you know, stuff."

Wildwing nodded a little and glanced at Grin before moving on.

"Nosedive usually locks me in at night, but I guess I'm getting better at escaping. If any of you find me sleepwalking, I suggest you stay out of the way."

"Eh, it's not that easy to tell when you're sleepwalking, Wing." Duke rubbed his jaw. "I knew somethin' was up, but it took me a bit to figure you were asleep."

"Actually," Nosedive broke in. "You can can tell if he's sleepwalking pretty easily." He grinned evilly at Wildwing before continuing. "He's got two modes when sleepwalking. The first one is pretty harmless and actually kind of funny."

Wildwing rolled his eyes, but allowed his little brother to continue.

"He'll answer any question you ask, but don't expect anything to make sense. When he's like that, just tell him to go back to bed. He usually does, especially if you bribe him with blueberry muffins."

"Dive," Wildwing frowned, "I hate blueberry muffins."

"Not when you're sleeping, bro! Anyway, it's pretty easy to tell when he's sleepwalking during a nightmare. He gets this crazy look in his eyes and pretty much turns into the abominable snow-duck. If you see him like that, get out of the way pronto."

Wildwing nodded emphatically and crossed his arms.

"If that happens, stay out of sight, but don't let me leave the Pond. I'm not sure what would happen if I got out of here and I don't want to find out."

"So, what am I supposed to do; knock you out?" Mallory quipped.

"Preferably not. But, if you have to, do it."

"It's not like a bola would be just as effective," Duke muttered, shaking his head slightly.

"What about you, Nosedive?" Mallory asked, almost a little too enthusiastically. "Do you sleepwalk?"

"Sorry, Mal Mal; you don't get to try knocking me out in my sleep. Nah, I just have mondo-nasty dreams and the occasional flashback."

"So that _was_ a flashback yesterday," Tanya added.

"Yeah..." He made a slightly disgusted face. "It was. But I don't know what to tell you to do to bring me out of those. Wing usually does it."

"Any suggestions for that?" Duke asked. He was proud of them, being this open about their problems. It was no easy feat to admit to something like this and then actually ask for help.

"Well." The white drake rubbed the back of his neck in thought for a moment. "Talk to him; let him know he's safe. Don't make any sudden movements. Touch usually helps pull him out of it pretty quick. You have to remind him he's here and not... Back then."

Duke nodded, realizing Wildwing wasn't able to say exactly what had happened. Maybe he'd find out, maybe not. Didn't really matter either way. He had his secrets and he'd let the Flashblade's keep theirs.

"So, you're not going to get any help for this?" Tanya asked. "You're just going to have Nosedive lock you in at night and hope one of us is up to stop you if you do escape?"

"No, we are," Wildwing was calm once more. "Grin is actually helping us through it."

"That's great!" Mallory exclaimed.

"It takes great strength of character to know when to rely on one's self and to know when to ask for help," Grin finally spoke up.

"Okay," Wildwing pushed himself off the computer and stood straight. "We've got a re-match with Florida in a few hours. I'll see you all in the locker room in three hours to go over strategy before the game." The leader stood strong and tall as his teammates also stood and began exiting the room for their own pre-game activities.

"Hey, Wing." Duke lay a light hand on the goalie's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze on his way out. "I'm proud of you."

"Yo, L'Orange!" Mallory called from the doorway. "You coming or what?"

Wildwing smiled, but didn't say anything as the thief turned towards the elevator.

Duke pulled his saber from his shoulder and threw a roguish smile at the redhead.

"On my way, sweetheart. Swords this time, remember?" Oh yeah, he was ready for another pre-game sparring session. This time, she was going down.

0000

Wildwing entered the silent hanger and took in the fully restored Aerowing. The newly applied panels gleamed a clean, bright white in the pale blue lighting. His team had done an impressive job, taking the mangled wreckage of their airship, carefully striping it down, and meticulously rebuilding it. Any visible damage to the frame was completely hidden by the new skin.

The lone drake entered the cockpit of the plane and went over the control panel, double checking everything. Their lives too often depended on how well the Aerowing functioned. It was his job as leader to always be on top of any problem that might arise, to always check for hidden flaws.

He smiled to himself as everything worked perfectly. He had a great team. They were all loyal, all hard workers. All his friends.

Satisfied that the Aerowing was ready for whatever attack Dragaunus could throw at it next, Wildwing exited and made his way to his bunk. This time, he was sure, his pre-game nap would be a peaceful one.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> End AN: The symptoms I describe here for Nosedive and Wildwing closely resemble PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). I figure you can't go through everything they have without it leaving some sort of emotional mark. Lucky for them, they went through it together and can help each other through the difficulties.
> 
> The warm milk that Nosedive makes is an actual recipe that I use for when I can't sleep. It's 1 cup milk (preferably raw milk, but that's insanely hard to find), 1 tbsp raw honey (must be raw!), 1 tsp vanilla, and a pinch of salt (preferably celtic sea salt). Mix it all together and warm it up slowly on the stove, stirring constantly to keep it from burning on the bottom or forming a skin on the top. Those ingredients mixed together act like melatonin and really help you fall asleep quickly, even if your mind won't shut up.


End file.
